Explain this to a Canadian (2 dollar bills)

[PM Martin]

Are 2 dollar bills used commonly, yes or no?

They are printed, but are they used?
I know the 1 dollar coins were never popular. Why?

[Nuclear Unicorn]

1. We were drunk. He said it would be a good idea. Now I have regrets.

Let's not keep bringing it up, okay?

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. Think of it as a Labbat 50 only twice the size

Cheers!

[Spider Jerusalem]

3. Nope

they should retire the $1 banknote, it's the only way people will use the coin. (And make the $2 a coin as well. Works in Canada; works in the UK; the EU...Americans fear change, I guess.)

[Nevernose]

9. I'll see you and raise

I'd also pass a law saying that all taxes must be included in the price. That's what I liked best about Europe: the price is the price, and I'm not trying to calculate an extra 8.25 percent.

[krispos42]

70. Afraid of change?

Ooch, good one.

[pokerfan]

71. Bazinga!

Americans fear change, I guess.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

73. Two dollar bills and coins were invented as

emergency gas or cigarette money you could usually find on the mantle or jewelry box on the dresser top if you were in a financial pinch. They replaced the coinage under sofa cushions we used to retrieve for the same purposes.

A side note, cashiers always look at you weird when you use and they know it's because you're otherwise broke and need a coke, a cig, or a gallon of gas (back then).

[MFrohike]

4. Two answers

Two dollar bills are popular at strip clubs and Monticello. As for the coin, I don't really know. I don't much care for them, but I really have no specific reason for it. Somehow, I suspect that's the reason.

[alcibiades_mystery]

15. Last time I was through Monticello (2005 or so)

It didn't seem like Monticello was popular in Monticello any more. Cheap flights to Florida really killed that whole 17 corridor. It was a depressing spectacle to behold.

[MFrohike]

18. That's sad

I only went once, around 91, but it was awesome. It's a snapshot of almost all of American history in one location.

[LadyHawkAZ]

20. $2 bills are popular in casinos, too

I had a lot of customers who carried the deuces to use for tips, because the machines wouldn't take them.

[The Magistrate]

5. People Of A Certain Age, Sir, View Them as Luck Bits

I have not come across one in many years, and do not think I have spent one within the last thirty years.

Long ago they were somewhat more common, back when you still came upon fifty cent pieces frequently, and silver dollars often enough it was simply a pleasant surprise, but not astonishing.

The story is, anyway, that they were often used in gambling, as a two dollar bet was the threshold at horse tracks.

I do not really know why none of the recent dollar coins caught on. It would make a lot of sense to have a dollar coin and a two dollar bill, in my view.

[Paulie]

21. I have one in my wallet

The tooth fairy will be visiting my daughter any day now.

[cyberswede]

22. LOL - that's what she brings my kids, too!

[Paulie]

24. Funny thing is my daughter would much prefer the tooth fairy deliver apps to her iPod.

Kids these days.

[SoCalDem]

65. Coins are a nuisance n/t

[krispos42]

72. I keep all the ones I come across, if they're 1976 series

Bicentennial quarters as well; they're my birth year.

[Warpy]

6. Retailers hated the coin

because there weren't enough slots in a cash register for both dollar bills and dollar coins. They were mostly circulated and in daily use in Las Vegas and Atlantic City and in casinos elsewhere.

As for customers, they've rejected most attempts at a dollar coin because they're too small, too close to the size of a quarter, and the distinctive rim on the Susan B Anthony dollar wasn't enough to save it from being mistaken for a quarter, something that made people mad.

I suppose they think a woman needs to be somewhere on our currency since they've evicted Miss Liberty in favor of male politicians on the rest. However, anything with a female face is being made too small to be practical.

ETA: I have the first dollar my dad earned. The date on it is 1923, which you can barely read since he kept that dollar in his wallet until he died at the age of 89.

[roamer65]

25. A red treasury seal or a blue one?

[Warpy]

29. It's a silver dollar.

[roamer65]

31. Ah. I thought it was an old large size note (aka "horse blanket")

Still worth well more than a dollar though.

[Warpy]

34. No, it's been worn nearly slick

It's a keepsake. The condition is far too poor to make it worth more than a buck.

[roamer65]

35. It's worth right around $20 because it's 90 pct silver.

But as a keepsake of your dad it's priceless.

[dimbear]

7. Dollar coins were actually very popular, back in the days they would buy you a nice meal.

Actually, a typical 1921 dollar coin will still buy you a nice meal.

[roamer65]

19. In the western states and California very true.

In the 1800's and into the early 1900's it was rare to see banknotes out there from what I have read. Using paper money out there usually labelled you as an Easterner and quite often it was not accepted at par with gold and silver coin.

[PoliticAverse]

8. 2 dollar bills are so rare that some cashiers in retail establishments think they aren't real.

I've never gotten one in change.

[pokerfan]

75. Don't even think about trying to pass one at Taco Bell

A Taco Bell employee refused a $2 bill because he thought it wasn't real.

http://www.snopes.com/business/money/tacobell.asp

[Historic NY]

10. Its like your Loonies...only we don't try peeling them apart to find chocolate.

[bhikkhu]

11. There was never a $2 bill slot in any cash register

So you could spend them, but you'd never get any back, and the stores just sent them to the bank, which sent them back to the treasury as few people ever asked for them.

I have a couple I got as Christmas presents years ago, but haven't seen one in years. Probably the same with $1 coins. Maybe if they eventually phase out the penny that will free up a register slot (though I don't like to carry loose change myself anyway).

[Betsy Ross]

12. They are very available.

My mother has gotten me in the habit of picking them up at the bank to use as special tips. There is always someone in the neighborhood that has never seen one.

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. I haven't see a $2 bill since I was a teenager...I'm damn near 40

We're very $1/$5/10/20 oriented, I think. Why would one need a $2 bill?

[CanonRay]

51. I actually have three of them in my wallet right now.

I like them...it throws stupid young cashiers into consternation.

[SomethingFishy]

14. Nah, we are really screwed up when it comes to coins..

The $2 bill was an epic failure, and so were the two times they tried to roll out dollar coins. However both times they made dollar coins they made them about the same size and weight of a quarter which people rightly didn't like.

I spend a lot of time in Canada and I do find the $2 and $1 coins to be easier to deal with. My friends use the twoies as golf ball markers

We'll catch up to you eventually.

[roamer65]

16. Some banks have $2 notes and some vending machines take them...

but they are not common. Only slightly more common than the Canadian 50 cent piece...lol.

If we get rid of the $1 note, then the $1 coins and $2 note would become widespread...much like when you switched to the loonie in 1987.

IMO, your twonie is a tad bit too big. I like Australia's 2 dollar coin more. About the size of a US dime but three times as thick and brass colored. It really was nice to use and carry.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

17. I have 20 of them in a box somewhere at my parents house.

It's my retirement fund.

[Paulie]

23. He's a bunch of stories done by NPR Planet Money

Youll find them quite entertaining.

http://www.npr.org/series/143963981/presidential-dollar-coin-program

[roamer65]

26. I still think we need the Richard Nixon $3 bill...heheh.

If you get one, you could then truly say you have been "Dicked".

[JaneyVee]

27. I have one and only one. And it's the only one I've ever seen in my life.

[former9thward]

28. Congress should eliminate the $1 bill.

Replace it with the dollar coins. I only use $2 bills. My bank gives me hundreds at a time. Normally they are in numerical order. They have never been circulated. I love them.

[bunnies]

56. Seriously?

I havent seen a $2.00 bill in decades. Im shocked to hear banks still have them.

[former9thward]

57. All banks have them.

At least large ones. The Treasury Department continues to circulate them and they send them to the banks whether they want them or not.

[bunnies]

66. I honestly had no idea.

Are they worth more now? I guess I assumed they would be which is why Im surprised banks are still distributing them.

[former9thward]

68. They are worth $2.00

And always will be. There are hundreds of millions of them out there if of not billions.

[Travis_0004]

76. Why?

The reason the 1.00 coin hasn't caught on is because people don't like them. Why force a change that people don't want? Sure, it would save a tiny bit of money for the government, but if savings is the goal, I'm sure there are other ways to eliminate waste. I prefer the 1.00 bill, and I don't want to switch to coins.

[former9thward]

77. That's the same thing they said in Canada and England.

Until they liked it. People never like change until they do like it. If we switched within a year people would be saying 'why didn't we do this years ago?'. Because of inflation a dollar bill is not good for much. Switch to the $2 and eliminate pennies and nickles.

[DebJ]

30. The newer $1 coins were just too close to quarter size, as other posters

said. I dropped a few of them myself into vending machines, thinking they were quarters,
with bad results. Vending machines either took them for quarters, or didn't take them at
all, but I think mostly used them like quarters.

[DebJ]

32. We need to get rid of our pennies first! n/t

[roamer65]

36. Got my vote.

[Posteritatis]

43. We recently did up here (to the considerable dismay of tourists) (nt)

[DebJ]

46. Canadians are always the smarter group it seems. n/t

[Posteritatis]

47. We have our dumb moments. (See: the federal government) (nt)

[KamaAina]

54. Plus, if you lose the penny,

you open up a slot in the register for the $1 coin.

[Dawson Leery]

33. I do not have a clear answer for either.

I do agree that we need to replace the 1 dollar bill with a coin(lifespan/cost).

[KT2000]

37. $2 bills are common

if you use the ferry system in Washington state. I always get them in change. When I use them in stores, the clerks are usually surprised to see it.

For some reason the dollar coin was ridiculed. I always thought it had to do with Susan B. Anthony being the figure on the coin - as in resentment of women's rights.

[roamer65]

38. Looked and felt too much like a quarter.

Also, bringing out a smaller dollar coin in 1979, a year of high inflation did not help. It reminded people how little the dollar was worth, along with the lines at the gas stations. Most people did not even know who was on the coin.

[uppityperson]

42. Reading down to see if any western washingtonian ferry riders would comment.

I had quite a collection a while back, gratis ferry.

[grantcart]

39. You do know that Americans can't handle the trauma of changing

to metric and they all have 10 fingers.

Need I say more?

$2 bills were used almost exclusively at horse racing tracks between1950 and 1980 as they took $ 2 bets.

Not much use elsewhere.

[SheilaT]

40. The original $1 coin was so close in size

and feel to a quarter that people constantly treated them like quarters. Very unpopular.

Some years back I decided to stock my cash drawer with $2 bills, and in the six months or so I did it, once and only once did someone refuse one. Most people, as I counted back their change, were quite bemused and seemed rather pleased to get them.

I don't recall there being a problem with stocking my drawer that way. Ones, twos, fives, tens, and twenties. That's five slots. If I got a larger bill, say a fifty or a hundred, it went to the bottom of the twenties pile.

[defacto7]

41. I get 10 to 20 - $1 coins every week from the bank.

I use them for everything. They work great for grocery checkout when you are self checking, they are great for parking, tips, or anything else. I just don't see the problem. I see them as a major advantage over scuffing through your wallet digging through nasty one dollar bills; they're disgusting.

Give them a try. Get a bunch at your bank and see if they don't grow on you after a week or two. I really have come to hate the $1 notes. Burn'em.

[Niceguy1]

53. the post office

Vending macjines give them as change, yoo

[JHB]

44. Part of it was conservative fear mongering

There was a move during the Carter administration to discontinue dollar bills and go with $2 bills and dollar coins (the Susan B. Anthony dollar).

The cash drawer problem was played up as "big government bureaucrats imposing still more costs on the beleaguered businessman!"

The flag-wrappers railed at how liberals were replacing George Washington, father of our country, with a feminist!

It simply wasn't worth the political hay that was made over it.

Same thing happened to a move to shift to the metric system at around the same time.

[B Calm]

45. 2 dollar bills are rare. The one dollar coin was mistaken to be a quarter.

[Jenoch]

48. My college wrestling team got meal money in $2 bills.

The coach was a little querky that way.

[Motown_Johnny]

49. Cash register drawers

Among other reasons, there just isn't space for two dollar bills in the drawers. The one dollar coin was too similar in size to a quarter. Why would we need both paper and coin $1.00 money anyways?

I didn't hate either one but neither was very helpful. Just FYI. I think the penny should be eliminated since it is nearly worthless now. Anything and everything can be rounded to the nearest five cents and all will be fine.

[rug]

50. Never mind that, what are you doing with loons on your dollars?

[roamer65]

55. Actually the story behind the loon on the Canadian dollar is very interesting.

The design used on the former (and larger) dollar coin was the "Voyageur" design. A First Nations male and a European male in a canoe, with an island in the background. A new, smaller version was crafted and the dies were made. The Royal Canadian Mint then attempted to send the dies by unsecured courier from Ottawa to the branch mint in Winnipeg. Big mistake. The dies disappeared in shipment. Now worried about counterfeiting, they enlisted an alternate design submitted years earlier by Canadian artist Robert-Ralph Carmichael...the Loon design. That is why the Loon is on the Canadian dollar.

[rug]

58. How interesting! I'm partial to the old one.

[roamer65]

62. If that is yours, hang onto it.

It won't be worth a huge premium, but Canada is actively removing all pure nickel coins from circulation. They were made from 1968-2001, 2001 being just a small mintage of the 25c in pure nickel. There after is the nickel-plated steel junk. Blah.

[treestar]

60. Oh that is why it's called a looney!

Learn something new every day.

[derby378]

52. I use $2 bills every chance I get

Sometimes I'll ask the credit union teller how many $2 bills she's sitting on and can I please have them as part of the withdrawal from my account.

[treestar]

59. For a while, the parking lot machine at our courthouse

would give change in dollar coins. I ended up saving them to use whenever I went there. So they went in and out of there. But they stopped doing it.

Everywhere I traveled recently has done away with the penny and the paper note for one of the currency. Seems like a good idea to me. Maybe we are just really attached to the $1 bill with George Washington on it.

[NYC Liberal]

61. Thankfully dollar coins haven't gotten popular here.

I hate them. Too heavy, too much change to carry around. It gets old fast. I've lived in and been to Canada plenty and that's the one thing I've always disliked.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

63. I know some people that used those $ coins accidentally in vending machines

and the vending machine took it. That could be one reason. Also, we hate change. I couldn't believe how annoying it was to have 1 pound and 2 pound coins in my pocket when I was in London a couple of weeks ago.

[Earth_First]

64. Our credit uniom will issue $2 notes upon request...

Ill grab $20 worth a few times a year.

Additionally, I don't mind the $1 coin...

[JVS]

67. At race tracks. Minimum bet is $2.

So they can be handy for that.

[Recursion]

69. Strip clubs often give out $2 bills in change

So that you'll tip with them instead of $1s.

[cemaphonic]

74. My folks used to do the hot-air balloon circuit in the Northwest.

Most ballooning events took place to coincide with the fairs that many towns have during the summer. These usually work with the local businesses sponsoring balloon crews in order to pay for their expenses, while the businesses get some advertising, civic pride, and a hot-air-balloon ride out of the deal.

One town (Driggs, ID) was on the fence about adding a ballooning event to their fair, until they hit on the idea of having every single sponsor pay the balloonists in $2 bills, so they could see how much of their money was staying in the community (Virtually all of it - Travel/Accommodations, and the actual costs of putting the balloons up costs much more than the sponsorship. It just defrays the cost of the hobby a bit). The whole town was awash in $2 for the weekend, and the balloonists were invited back the next year. (and a quick look at Google shows that it is still a yearly event).

I always thought that was a clever way to take advantage of the relative rarity of $2 bills.

[Arugula Latte]

78. I wish..I liked using "toonies" when we were in Canada.

That's a handy denomination to have.

[COLGATE4]

79. My wife and I cruise a lot so

I get $2 bills to give for miscellaneous tips on board (room service, etc.). They come in handy for that. You can get them at almost any bank, although they may not have more than 30 or so on hand.