#$2dispatch

April 13, 2016

First, let’s wish a big happy birthday to the modern-day $2 bill! Forty years ago today, the redesigned $2 bill was reissued after a decade of not being produced at all. The occasion was the U.S. Bicentennial, but additionally, April 13 is the front man’s birthday — so we can wish a happy birthday to not just the reissued $2 bill (aka the “Tom”), but also Thomas Jefferson. 

In 2014 and in 2015 I showed $2 bills from April 13, 1976, with special day-of-issue commemorative markings — take a gander. 

And now back to our $2 bill transaction reporting: 

Location: Vekslers, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn

Date of Transaction: June 2, 2014

Transaction: Paid for dinner with $2 bills

Due to a shortage of other denominations in my wallet, I whipped out a bunch of $2 bills at the end of a group dinner. The waitress, who introduced herself as Dana (there she is, pictured above with another $2-bill-loving patron who was at my table), reacted with bountiful enthusiasm. I asked her what she was going to do with the $2 bills. 

“I put them with the $100s — because they’re special. They’re good luck. Because it’s almost not real money...because they’re not in circulation so much. It’s a simple fact. And they’re so ornate! I mean, just the back.... 

“The guy who owns this place is awesome, and when I told him you were paying with $2 bills, he said, ‘That is awesome!’ 

“One thing you learn as a bartender....money is money.” 

Thank you, Dana and Vekslers, for not just accepting but warmly welcoming more $2 bills than anyone should reasonably spend in one place. 

Zealous reminder: The $2 Bill Documentary is screening in NYC this Sunday afternoon! That’s April 17 at Cinema Village — get tickets here. Q&A to follow!

February 11, 2016

Location: The Steel Cart, Midtown Manhattan, New York, NY

Date of Transaction: April 29, 2014

Transaction: Bought coffee with a $2 bill

These lovely folks were jubilant when I paid with a $2 bill. That’s always extra fun. The guy on the right took the opportunity to share with me all kinds of stories and feelings about the $2 bill. I love when strangers do that!

So how does he feel when he gets a $2 bill? 

“My brain kind of slows down. I like getting one or two. I just don’t know how to act, how to respond to it” — then he told me that once he was paid $40 in $2 bills, and that was a little too much. 

“I stand firm behind my crazy $2 bill opinions. I feel happy receiving it, but then I feel guilty spending it. Almost like it’s a different currency. Like I drew them a picture instead of giving them actual money. Like Monopoly money. I try to slip them into other transactions. Almost like they’re counterfeit.”

Fascinating. This summarizes so much about our mixed feelings about the $2 bill. What would compel any of us to feel guilty about spending a denomination of our own currency? Truly a question to ponder. It’s a feeling that’s experienced by many I’ve met. 

And this: “Almost like they’re counterfeit” — isn’t that perfect? Spending $2 bills induces the sort of guilt that one might have when spending counterfeit money. So great. So happy I spent a $2 bill at this place. 

January 16, 2016 

Location: Venticinque Cafe (no longer open), Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY

Date of Transaction: April 28, 2014

Transaction: Used a $2 bill to buy a croissant

Mmmm, a croissant — a perfect and delicious $2 bill transaction. As the barista was putting my $2 bill into the register, she looked at it, paused, and said “Wow.” Then she thought for a moment, removed two $1 bills from the tip jar, put the $2 bill in the jar, and put the two $1 bills into the register. 

Probably a wise move. A $2 bill in a tip jar will likely get taken by an employee, whereas a $2 bill in a register will likely get put into a bank deposit bag at the end of the night, ending its circulation for the time being.

January 12, 2016

Happy New Year! (It’s not too late to say that, right?) 

Location: Golden Sand, New York, NY

Date of Transaction: March 29, 2014

Transaction: Paid for dim sum with $2 bills

Friends and I went for dim sum brunch in NYC’s Chinatown. I was freshly flush with $2 bills after a visit to a Chase bank, where I’d made my normal withdrawal of $100 in $2 bills. 

Time came to pay. I pulled out my wad of $2 bills and lay some on the table as part of my payment. An employee caught sight of it, whipped her head around in what appeared to be a mix of shock and delight, and approached me, ooohing and aaahing. Other employees soon followed, widening their eyes and making excited sounds. A gaggle of them surrounded me. Clearly they were stirred up. None of them spoke English. 

A bolder one came close and gestured to convey that she wanted the $2 bills. I nodded, and we looked each other in the eyes. Then she abruptly slapped down a $20 bill, and I handed her ten $2 bills. She smiled in satisfaction and stepped away. Her colleagues scrambled toward me, wanting their own chance, but I shook my head and put away the rest. 

Another story of the powerful grip of the lucky $2 bill. 

December 18, 2015

Location: Mary’s Bar (no longer open), Brooklyn, NY

Date of Transaction: March 26, 2014

Transaction: Paid for a drink with a $2 bill

Here we see Steven the bartender, who was happier than a rabbit in a cabbage patch when I paid with the $2 bill pictured above. “Wow, a $2 bill!” he exclaimed, later telling me it was the first $2 bill he’d received while working there. (An off-duty bartender drinking a few barstools away said she’d seen perhaps only two of them in her time there.) 

Steven told me he collects “old” money: “ones, fives, tens, twenties—” [pause] “—from the ’90s.” Wait, did we hear that right? The ’90s? Yes. (Okay, not everyone has the same definition of old.) Well, the redesign of most of those bills may as well make them worthy of saving. Did he add to his collection the $2 bill, which, incidentally, hasn’t been redesigned since 1976? I half hope so. I half hope he spent it. (Unlikely.)

December 7, 2015

Location: A Brooklyn, NY, apartment

Date of Transaction: March 21, 2014

Transaction: Paid for a birthday cake with $2 bills

It was birthday time for a friend. The best way to get a customized bowling-themed cake complete with bowling-pin-shaped cookies was to go to the home of my friend Stephanie, master baker. Picking up the cake in her cash-only living room, I thought it would be a friendly yet suitably goofy gesture to pay with as many $2 bills as possible, adding a fun kick of novelty to a personal cash transaction. 

Stephanie was quite into it. “Oooo. I love $2 bills,” she said. Then she expanded: 

“I remember when they resurrected $2 notes in 1976. My sister and I received one in a nice little banknote folder. I still have that, it having survived even post-college penury when I ransacked even the penny piggy bank. I am very plus on the $2 bill; I see it as being useful in a time when items cost more than $1 but perhaps less than $5, and having more in circulation means that I could use them more frequently and have less bulk in the billfold. Also, admittedly as a result of there being fewer of them in circulation, they usually are crisp and natty.”

November 6, 2015

Location: Cronin & Phelan’s Bar, Astoria, New York 

Date of transaction: March 24, 2014

Transaction: Used a $2 bill when paying for a round of drinks, then left another as a tip

The bartender at Cronin & Phelan’s was Irish — as in, directly from Ireland. I mention this because it wasn’t that long ago when I had an Irish bartender elsewhere who didn’t believe my $2 bill was real. So when I paid with a $2 bill and this bartender didn’t react to it, I was a little disappointed. He slipped it into the cash register as if it were any other bill. 

To me, that’s a sign of the $2 bill achieving victory — when someone treats it like any other U.S. currency. Mission accomplished, in a sense. Currency assimilation and all. But I had to know what he’d thought about it, so I asked. 

Me: “Did you just put that $2 bill in the register?”

He: “Yes. The whole fortune.” 

And then he smiled, and he withdrew a tattered old $2 bill of his own from his wallet. He held it up and said, “I’ll never spend it.” A friend of his gave it to him years ago and told him to never spend it because it’s good luck. Adorable. 

November 4, 2015

Location: Wilton House Bar, Hoboken, New Jersey

Date of transaction: February 28, 2014

Transaction: Paid for two beers with two $2 bills 

When your drink costs a flat two dollars, it’s handy to have $2 bills. That’s what happened at this out-of-the-way bar in New Jersey, and I was happy to conduct my cash transaction with utmost efficiency. 

I placed my $2 bills on the bar and waited for the bartender to notice. He glanced at them for a moment with raised eyebrows, then whisked them away. Later, I asked him what he’d done with them. 

“I hadn’t seen ’em in a while. I put four crummy singles in [the register] and took the $2 bills for the kids.” Then he showed me the $2 bills, which he’d secured in his wallet under a strap after I’d paid with them.