April 6, 2023 • 32 mins
If you've spent your life in the US, you've probably seen a $2 bill every once in a while -- they're much less common than, say, the $1, the $10 or the $20. In fact, many people assume the $2 bill is a thing of the past... but that turns out not to be true. In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max explore the origin of the Deuce, why it was so controversial, and why it's still around in the modern day.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
for tuning in. Before we get down to the brass
taxi currency, let's give it up for the man the
myth legend, mister Max Williams. He is the two dollar
bill man. He keeps saying that uncle Kutchu. He was
supposed to say it, to which I was just going
to respond, cuckoo couchu. But he didn't say it, so
(00:48):
I had to say the whole thing. And I forgot
to say he's our superproducer Andy, and I should say
that because I made up the term superproducer. But look,
you're an old brown. I'm Ben Bowling, and we have
both lived in a world with a bunch of coupons
called dollars. Most of the most of our fellow Ridiculous
(01:10):
historians tuning in probably have touched less cash over the
years of what A saynal yeah, and less grass too,
less grass. Yeah, so they say to touch grass, it's
important to touch grass, leave your home. Oh I see, yeah, yeah,
but I mean during the pandemic, right, A lot of
(01:31):
cash less like uh, I don't know when's the when's
the last time you interacted with a stack of US dollars?
You know, I don't know about a stack, but I
am currently in possession of a one hundred dollar note. Ah,
same say that just it just goes in a drawer.
(01:55):
I don't know what to do with it. It's basically
useless to me. I like to take it out and
look at it it, hold it up to the light
and see all the little anti counterfeiting measures. I like
to light my cigars with it. That's what I'm going
to use it for. You know, for a long time,
my girlfriend worked at a credit union, and she is
(02:16):
one of the ways that I learned about two dollar bills.
It's strange because you don't often see a two dollar
bill in the wild. And this is something that also
caught the attention of our research associate, Jeff. And this
is very close to Jeff. I think he went through
some stuff where he was trying to figure out where
(02:38):
the two dollar bill came from and come to find,
fellow ridiculous historians, the two dollar bill, the very first
two dollar note, is a little more than a week
older than the United States America. You say, oh, we
(02:58):
do right, It's like on June twenty fifth, seventeen seventy six,
the Continental Congress authorized the creation of two dollar denominations
as quote unquote bills of credit for you know, the
coming war. Yeah, and like you know, what's what's a
C note? Is that a hondo? I like guess c
(03:19):
notte as a houndo. But they referred to these things
as continentals, So a different kind of C note, a
two dollar bill and again named after the Continental Congress.
In eighteen sixty two, the federal government started printing paper money,
and then the first you know experiment with currency, the
two dollar bill was included. It was really I say
(03:42):
experiment only half joking. It really was so that they
were trying because at the time coins were much more popular.
The idea of a of a thing that was worth something,
you know, because of the precious metals it contained for
all intends and purposes, like like an iou right, yeah, man. Also,
if we consider at this time, two dollars was a
(04:06):
lot of money to just be growing around, which is
probably the reason both of us have our current one
hundred dollar bills that we take out and admire. I mean,
you know, most people are not going to be spending
two dollars at a time at a time in the
eighteen sixties. This is where, this is where we want
(04:28):
to shout out a great article from Mental Fluss by
Hannah Kaiser, who notes, as you said, the two dollar
bill was first printed in eighteen sixty two as official
US currency instead of Continental Congress currency or whatever. US
Treasury started printing money in about eighteen sixty one, and
(04:49):
the two dollar bill went through a couple of different iterations.
I think first it was Alexander Hamilton, and a few
years after that it was it was Max's boy, Tommy
jay TJ to his friends, and now I believe his
mug graces the ten. Yeah, and I love the point
you make about coins, right, It can be a bit
(05:11):
of an unexpected cold shower for many people in the
US to go to a country like Japan where coins
are a big thing, or some European countries where coins
are still a big thing. Paper money, you don't automatically
(05:32):
trust it, especially back in the eighteen hundreds. And here's
the kicker. The two dollar bill was not super popular
and it was actually considered bad luck. Yeah, there's actually
a documentary about this that I saw a while ago.
(05:54):
I need to rewatch it though, but it's by a
dude named John Benardo, and it is in a creativity,
as you would say, been called the two dollar Bill documentary,
I think, with a little bit of tongue planted firmly
in cheek. There. The reason it was unpopular was because,
like you said, ben two dollars at once absurd. People
were making less than fifteen bucks a month for their salaries.
(06:19):
So like, I mean what I mean, I'm not I'm
no math scientists here, but two dollars is quite a
large portion, but not an insignificant portion of that monthly salary.
You know. To be spending that all at once would
be the equivalent of making a massive purchase. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Like imagine, just for improvised example, imagine you have a
(06:45):
one hundred dollar bill and you go to grab food
at a reasonable lunch counter. Now you are that person saying, oh,
do you have changed for a hundred on my five dollars?
You know, soup and sandwich. It's weird, and we were
all talking off air about this. There are a couple
(07:08):
of reasons, aside from superstition, that the two dollar bill
was so unpopular First, there's a lot of inflation going on.
We have a one dollar bill. Why can't we just
have two one dollar bills? Why do we need one
two dollar bill? It's easy. It always felt silly if
things are fifty cents, Why can't I just pay with
(07:28):
a one? Why do I have to flex on folks?
And then another factor, it's unpopular because especially during the
Great Depression, people preferred coins. The New York Times, even
before the Great Depression, was talking some trash about this.
(07:49):
They said gamblers especially considered the two dollar bill to
be unlucky. And I think we have a quote here
they have been avoided as start. I don't know that ter,
but yeah, I got that was sort of the kicker.
But he who sits in the game of Chad, so
the two dollar bill in his pocket is thought to
(08:10):
be saddled with the jinks. And then the bit about
it being avoided as ill starred. I guess that's like, yeah,
referring to you know, astrology, you know, like it's like
there's like a bad bad moon rising kind of vibe. What. Yeah,
it's like the it's like the idea of destiny prophecy. Yeah,
(08:33):
as well, and gangsters are not gangsters. Gamblers gamblers and
gangsters alike are big believers and determinism, so they believe
in fate and destiny. And then you know, there's also
the political corruption. During the eighteen hundreds, you would frequently
(08:53):
use two dollars bills to bribe voters because it was
the lowest amount of money that seemed like an unnecessarily
large amount of money. Yeah, that makes sense. By the way,
two dollars is about fourteen percent of that fifteen dollars
a month salary. I did some quick Google math. There
(09:15):
actually thirteen point three repeating of fifteen bucks a month.
So that's I would say, that's reason enough for this
thing to be kind of redundant, right, or at the
very least, just too extravagant for the average human being.
And this caused the denomination to not be particularly widely circulated. Yeah,
(09:36):
And the Treasury Department was trying to do some pr
stuff in the early nineteen hundreds, and it tried to
do this for decades. It wasn't until the mid nineteen
sixties nineteen sixty six that I gave up, and for
a time the US stopped printeen two dollars bills because
(10:01):
they read the room over more than a half a century,
and they said, oh, I guess people don't want them.
They said, deuces to the deuce. No, I love that
you said deuce. That was the street name for the
(10:22):
two dollars bill for a long time. And deuce is also,
you know, a sideways name for infernal powers, the deuce
the devil. Yeah, it's like dang to damn right, you
say deucedin's the place of devil. It's also you know,
a way the cool kids say goodbye, you know, by
(10:42):
throwing up a piece sign the deuces, you know. And
this played another role in the bill's poor circulation because
they were like vandalized a lot, which technically is what
you call it when you mess with currency. Folks who
would receive a two dollars bill would tear off one
corner are believing somehow that that would reverse the curse
(11:05):
or the jinks or you know, the evil of the deuce.
So a lot of these were seen by you know,
treasury volks, I guess or bankers perhaps and taken out
of circulation because they were considered what is called mutilated currency.
That's the thing, right of those people in Canada that
were spoking their fivers remember that one yes, of course,
(11:26):
and then again in nineteen twenty nine Great Depression. A
lot of stuff is costing less than a dollar. You
don't really have a reason to use a two dollar bill.
It isn't until nineteen seventy five when the Secretary of
the Treasury, William E. Simon says, we're bringing back to
(11:46):
two dollar bill because this is so nuts. He says,
because it costs four point nine cents to print a
one dollar bill and a two dollar bill, and therefore,
long term, it's cheaper to make a two dollar bill.
Just to clarify, Um, I think I maybe even misspoke.
(12:08):
They didn't stop printing it entirely until nineteen sixty six, correct,
and then they come back like like new coke. You know, hey,
where what's what is old? Is now new again? Um?
And to your point, yeah, it was sort of like
a cost saving measure. But doesn't that sound weird? That's
a gird way to think about it, right, It doesn't
(12:28):
make any sense. Why and why? I don't under how
do they justify this? It's why is it cheaper to
make a two dollar bill than to make a one
dollar bill? Because they both cost the same amount of money,
but one represents more value than the other. Icy But
again we know logistically that it's just an odd denomination.
(12:51):
You know, you just drop two dollars. What do we care?
What does the consumer care? You know about? I mean,
I don't know. It doesn't doesn't make much. Not fret
ourselves with the concerns of the common say, the Treasury Department.
It's a very good point. Bet they're not exactly thinking,
not exactly men of the people. So you're right, Ben.
(13:11):
On April thirteenth, nineteen seventy six, which was Thomas Jefferson's birthday,
nice tie in there, you know, for the special drop
of the two dollars. Yeah, exactly. So this was a
redesigned note, I believe, right. Yeah, it was a new
two dollars bill, the new coke of currency. As you said,
(13:33):
it's got a picture depicting the presentation of the Declaration
of Independence to the Continental Congress on the back of
the bill. Thomas Jefferson is all over it because they
relaunch it on his birthday, and the idea was in
the Treasury Department, the reprinting this would increase the use
(13:53):
of the bill and the interest in the two dollars bill,
but it had the absolute opposite effect. A lot of
people of the United States were like, this is for
gamblers and people at houses of ill repute. Pepperidge Farm
remembers right right exactly just so, and so they said,
(14:13):
we're going to take the We're going to get these
two dollar bills, but we're not going to spend them.
We're going to tuck them away. We're going to save
them because this is such a bad idea that I
could sell it on eBay later, they thought, before the invention, right. Well, also,
that's that was always my exposure to the two dollar bill.
(14:35):
I don't know about you, Ben. It sounds to me
like from our offware conversations you maybe came into a
little bit of a stack of them somewhere along the line,
But I always just heard of heard them referred to
kind of as these keepsakes. And maybe in my my
you know, youthful brain, I believe that they were of
value to some degree. What's the deal with that? Like,
(14:58):
were they or were they just work two dollars? Well,
I think they were most often spent as sort of
a flex at least in my time. Like the idea
that people would go to a bank, as they may
do even today, and request a withdrawal entirely in two
(15:18):
dollars bills. And then the most nuts thing about this
is the United States still has a lot of two
dollar bills. If we go to the Cold War in
the nineteen sixties, the US and the Soviet Union super
beefed up, as we like to say on the show,
(15:38):
and they were thinking through what would happen if a
nuclear war took place. They said, the devastation would be astronomical,
but there would probably be survivors in the US, and
the American government would need to put in a lot
of plans to or i say, make America great again,
(16:02):
but in a very different, very different sense, very different sense.
But wouldn't apocalypse money be more efficient? As like, you know,
objects that don't burn fall out taught me bottle caps
are the way to get Bottle caps are good? Or
like even you know coin, uh, perhaps the seashells, you know?
(16:23):
But yeah, I don't know, I don't I'm a little
confused here. What what what? What's the thinking here of
like these being somehow a valuable thing to have around
in the event of a nuclear holocaust. Here's the twist.
So Uncle Sam built a place called Mount Pony, and
the Federal is like a fun place. It sounds like
(16:46):
a weird pun. But the Federation of Americans get back
on the horse, you know, uh, the Federation of American
Scientists describe this. It's a pretty expensive thing. It's a
one hundred foot long bunker with steel reinforced concrete that's
a foot thick, and it's covered up, it's guarded. It's
(17:11):
a vault. Mounts Pony had a bunch of cash on hand.
No one knows how much, maybe two billion dollars cash,
maybe five billion. And the idea was that if there
was a huge disaster, a nuclear war, this place would
be a way to bring US currency back to the forefront.
(17:35):
And it was full of two dollars bills where they
stuffed in two mattresses. They were stuffed in concrete bunkers,
which is like the Cold War equivalent of a mattress.
I guess that's fair, that's fair. I would just think
at that point, I'd rather just have the bunker right
than the cash, right, Like I appreciate I appreciate it, guys,
(17:57):
but I could have just used some canned beans and
the space or or maybe a trip to that Oreo bunker,
remember that one that was one of the one of
the good bunkers, that's one of the good ones. Yeah,
it's way more fun than the seed bunker out there
in h what is that? Norway? That one's important though,
that one, that one that would argue way more valuable
(18:19):
than a bunker full of two dollar bills. All right,
as we as we know, money is made up anyway,
So it's like this idea of like, let's get the
currency back in play. I think there are more bigger
fish to fry in this in this nuclear scenario that
we're describing. Then let's get back to the two dollar bills. Yeah,
let's maintain the security of us back fiat currency. So,
(18:43):
speaking of which, you say fiat currency, and I've always
just been a little foggy on like, you know, I
know there's no gold standard. I know that, you know
cash money isn't technically backed by like some giant vault
full of gold bricks. But so what does fiat currency mean?
And like where does the value of cash actually come
(19:03):
from other than just a wish and a promise from
Uncle Sam. Well, let me give you, let's do two
optional definitions. Fiat currency generally is going to be any
currency that is not backed by a physical commodity, so
not tied to a gold standard, for instance. And I
(19:27):
would argue this might not be something all our fellow
ridiculous historians agree with me on. But I would argue
that the US currency, being the de facto reserve currency
of the world, is backed by the threat of the
US military. It's certainly a kind of a loan sharky
(19:48):
kind of way of enforcing, you know, the idea of value.
You know what I mean. It would be a shameless
something happened to your oops, snucked your vase off the
table there butter fingers, you know, the vase being your civilization.
Thank you. Yeah, go with me. So this uh, this
bunker mounts Pony, which is again a ridiculous name. It
(20:12):
looks to be an exercise and almost catch twenty two surrealism.
Nobody wanted the two dollar bills, so they had to
do something, and they said, we're preserving the world by
making these two dollar bills mean something in case of
a nuclear war. Now, now it's nuts, because if we
(20:34):
look at the two dollar bill today, there are so
many out there they still haven't caught on. I don't
think they're super popular. When's the last time you saw
one in the wild? And to my point earlier, just
about like I think, how we both, probably all three
of us probably grew up you know, thinking about two
dollar bills always, just as does keepsake, you know, or
(20:56):
some little kind of novelty. Right, But again, my idiot
brain kind of thought maybe it was like valuable, like
it was worth more, like what if it's worth three dollars,
you know, even that would be insane. But no, it's not.
It's not like a buffalo nickel or you know, even
like other kind of more value like slightly valuable vintage coins. Right.
(21:16):
A two dollar bill is still available, like you said,
you can get them at the bank if you ask.
And there's a really great article on wytv dot com
about the history of the two dollar bill that points
out that the lifespan of a one dollar bill is
only approximately eighteen months, but a two dollar bill lasts
(21:37):
about six years because people don't spend them. Yeah, and hey,
shout out to the older one dollar bills. Whenever I
see a one dollar bill, that small guy, right, yeah, small, Yeah,
it's older. I love him. I love him. One of
my family members, somewhat new and sculptor or collected a
(22:02):
lot of currency because he was a very, very weird dude,
and I didn't recognize the history he was showing me
with his again, very strange collection. And the two dollar
bill now is still occasionally printed because, like you said, nold,
people will request it at banks. But also there's not
(22:27):
a big support structure for them, Like your average cash
register doesn't have a slot for a two dollar bill.
What is it? Ones, fives, tens, twenties, and the big
the big bucks they go. Yeah, and that's probably where
the two dollar bills go. But of course two dollar
bills have become a kind of social currency as much
(22:52):
as a currency currency. Wow, that was a bad job
because I speak English apparently not fluently. No, no, not degrade,
You got that. That's all that matters. People tip two
dollar bills to be remembered, which is why they are
(23:16):
popular in dancing halls, for instance, or why they're popular
in certain restaurants, would be the diplomatic way to phrase it. Yeah,
And speaking of being diplomatic, we did leave out the
fact that two dollars was the going rate for a
dalliance with a sex worker. Let us just say, back
(23:38):
in the early days of two dollar bills, so they
were sometimes referred to as a pejorative for the sex
worker bill, right or notes. Yeah, the double the word.
We don't say it because it's gross. It's gross. And also,
gamblers used to get paid their winnings entirely in two
(24:00):
dollar bills. So there's the thing. There's this whole group
of people, the whole community that wants to bring back
the two dollar bill. One blog about this is called
two Buckaroo, and I think we talked about this in
the past. The idea is that you save, like you
(24:20):
can save the two dollar bill and keep the US
Treasury printing it, not just by secreting them away, but
by spending them actively. What's the name again for people
that collect currency not a philists. Yeah, that's that's a
fun one. And then and then then there's the one
(24:41):
for coins that we talked about a previous episode that
neither one of us quite got right off. It's it's newmismatists,
new Smiths matists. Yeah, I knew it was a silly
goofy word. Um, but that two dollar bill documentary actually,
which is available on YouTube, and it's pretty great. It
is pretty good, and it does kind of go into
(25:02):
some of the more like you know, niche sort of
communities of folks that really take the stuff seriously. I
don't think we mentioned that YouTube. Fighter jet pilots typically
will carry a two dollar bill on them, I guess,
because you know there's a two in the name of
their plane. Yeah, and we want to close by shalonaar
(25:22):
Pale Matthew zach Led who uses about seven thousand two
dollar bills per year entirely because he believes this will
quote create meaningful interactions and otherwise mundane encounters that seems
like it is triggering a social hack of of some sort.
(25:48):
And there are I would say, there are many more
examples of the two dollar bill as social currency, Like
it's not uncommon to see mentions of two dollar bills
in human interest stories throughout the nineteen eighties even to
(26:10):
the present day. No. No, if we look at the
news on two dollar bills just now, just so a
little quick internet search, do we see anything interesting? Uh? Yeah, yeah,
we do. Ben It goes against pretty much everything I've
been saying at this point about two dollar bills being
like you know, kind of run of the mill, not
(26:30):
necessarily worth anything, not really collectors items, not everything. But
apparently there are some very specific two dollar notes that
are worth upwards of forty five hundred dollars, it says
here on an article on Massachusetts Live dot com. For
most of the history two dollar notes of unpopular beeview
(26:53):
is unlucky. But there are these kind of pre reissue
from that reissue we were talking about, where there are
certain two dollar bills that have a red seal, those
that were printed before in eighteen ninety and then uncirculated.
Those if you see one, could be worth around forty
(27:13):
five hundred bucks. There are other general bills with this
red seal that aren't quite reaching, you know, fetching those,
but if they're the last prices thirty years, they're still
worth hundreds three hundred bucks to twenty five hundred. There
are some other types of seals, brown or blue, that
are also worth several hundreds. So disregard what I said
(27:35):
in general, most of them, Yeah, they're they're they're not.
That's the kicker is they're not rare, but they're not
like common either. It's well, but if you that's I
think that's the most important part for us here and
for you. Let's stay at home, fellow ridiculous historians. No
matter how much your two dollar bill is actually worth,
(27:57):
it's only worth two dollars at the cash regis, So
do do take caution. It is worth your time. You
can check out places like the US Currency Auctions website
or USCA, which will give you a list of exactly
what Noel's talking about here. It's kind of weird, you
know what I mean, Like, maybe that is part of
(28:18):
the appeal when people are paying with a two dollar bill.
Maybe I'm secretly giving you thousands of dollars. I don't know.
Are people thinking that way? You know? I'm not sure,
but I will say I do think the idea of
like laundering money through like really really rare stamps or
(28:40):
you know, currency or coins or whatever is really interesting.
I just wanted to give a film recommendation. I think
we talked about this, but I've been on this kind
of noir kick lately and watched a film called Charade
starring Audrey Hepburn and Carrie Grant's like a sixties kind
of romance, thriller, noir kind of thing, and it involves
a plot of about stealing a large amount of money
(29:02):
and hiding it in an unusual place. That's all I'm
gonna say. That's perfect. And in this case, we're going
to have to stop and count all of our two
dollar bills? Which one two right right right? Or two
four six eight. We want to give a special thanks
(29:23):
to everybody who helps this show exist. Mister Max Williams
our super producer. Max, what's your two dollar bill experience?
We ask you today? Oh? I love them the best?
All right, so Max is sketchy pro produce, maxis produce,
(29:44):
super producer producer it. Um, yeah, it wasn't really, but
thank you. I appreciate the gesture. There is a guy, though,
to to continue with this extended wrap up, who is
pushing for more wide adoption of dollar bills. It's just
the guy who's Actually it would make sense who this
guy is. He is, in fact a curator at the
(30:06):
American Numismatic Society, a guy with the name of Jesse
Kraft that he describes this dollar bill very suc saftly. Thusly,
there is a degree of popularity to them, there is
a sense of excitement. But as far as putting them
back in the circulation, that's the key that's missing. And
he has a good argument about he has a good
(30:26):
argument about the cost to the treasury again and still
about half as expensive for the Treasury to print a
two dollar bill than it is for other denominations. And
now a two dollar bill isn't like you know, your mortgage,
you know, or like like like what is it a
quarter of your of your monthly income. So you know, yeah,
(30:49):
I'm all about it, but we haven't really talked about
the fact that we did a little bit of the top.
You know, cash is just becoming less and less popular.
There are places that actively don't accept cash, unless you're
in New York, where people either only take cash or
take note cash right and most in most of the
world still cash in some version is king. So I'm
(31:12):
gonna restart an ending and thank mister Max Williams. Max,
I'm sorry I call I called you sketchy. I just
thought it was a fun bit. Do you do you
find yourself sketchy? Do you find yourself in a lot
of two dollar bill situations? I can neither confirm nor
deny that class. I have seen sketching in little notebooks
from time to time. I have seen you counting in
(31:34):
twos as well, So let's let's do our thank yous
and two's thanks to Jonathan strangling to aka the Quister.
Thanks to you, Noel Brown. Um, I guess collectively we
would be a three dollar bill. Yeah, I'll go with that. Hey, Well,
as an idea, we should we should fill out a
comment card and send it to the Treasury see if
(31:55):
they'll see if they'll go with our idea three dollar bills,
why not. We'll see you next time, folks. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
for tuning in. Before we get down to the brass
taxi currency, let's give it up for the man the
myth legend, mister Max Williams. He is the two dollar
bill man. He keeps saying that uncle Kutchu. He was
supposed to say it, to which I was just going
to respond, cuckoo couchu. But he didn't say it, so
(00:48):
I had to say the whole thing. And I forgot
to say he's our superproducer Andy, and I should say
that because I made up the term superproducer. But look,
you're an old brown. I'm Ben Bowling, and we have
both lived in a world with a bunch of coupons
called dollars. Most of the most of our fellow Ridiculous
(01:10):
historians tuning in probably have touched less cash over the
years of what A saynal yeah, and less grass too,
less grass. Yeah, so they say to touch grass, it's
important to touch grass, leave your home. Oh I see, yeah, yeah,
but I mean during the pandemic, right, A lot of
(01:31):
cash less like uh, I don't know when's the when's
the last time you interacted with a stack of US dollars?
You know, I don't know about a stack, but I
am currently in possession of a one hundred dollar note. Ah,
same say that just it just goes in a drawer.
(01:55):
I don't know what to do with it. It's basically
useless to me. I like to take it out and
look at it it, hold it up to the light
and see all the little anti counterfeiting measures. I like
to light my cigars with it. That's what I'm going
to use it for. You know, for a long time,
my girlfriend worked at a credit union, and she is
(02:16):
one of the ways that I learned about two dollar bills.
It's strange because you don't often see a two dollar
bill in the wild. And this is something that also
caught the attention of our research associate, Jeff. And this
is very close to Jeff. I think he went through
some stuff where he was trying to figure out where
(02:38):
the two dollar bill came from and come to find,
fellow ridiculous historians, the two dollar bill, the very first
two dollar note, is a little more than a week
older than the United States America. You say, oh, we
(02:58):
do right, It's like on June twenty fifth, seventeen seventy six,
the Continental Congress authorized the creation of two dollar denominations
as quote unquote bills of credit for you know, the
coming war. Yeah, and like you know, what's what's a
C note? Is that a hondo? I like guess c
(03:19):
notte as a houndo. But they referred to these things
as continentals, So a different kind of C note, a
two dollar bill and again named after the Continental Congress.
In eighteen sixty two, the federal government started printing paper money,
and then the first you know experiment with currency, the
two dollar bill was included. It was really I say
(03:42):
experiment only half joking. It really was so that they
were trying because at the time coins were much more popular.
The idea of a of a thing that was worth something,
you know, because of the precious metals it contained for
all intends and purposes, like like an iou right, yeah, man. Also,
if we consider at this time, two dollars was a
(04:06):
lot of money to just be growing around, which is
probably the reason both of us have our current one
hundred dollar bills that we take out and admire. I mean,
you know, most people are not going to be spending
two dollars at a time at a time in the
eighteen sixties. This is where, this is where we want
(04:28):
to shout out a great article from Mental Fluss by
Hannah Kaiser, who notes, as you said, the two dollar
bill was first printed in eighteen sixty two as official
US currency instead of Continental Congress currency or whatever. US
Treasury started printing money in about eighteen sixty one, and
(04:49):
the two dollar bill went through a couple of different iterations.
I think first it was Alexander Hamilton, and a few
years after that it was it was Max's boy, Tommy
jay TJ to his friends, and now I believe his
mug graces the ten. Yeah, and I love the point
you make about coins, right, It can be a bit
(05:11):
of an unexpected cold shower for many people in the
US to go to a country like Japan where coins
are a big thing, or some European countries where coins
are still a big thing. Paper money, you don't automatically
(05:32):
trust it, especially back in the eighteen hundreds. And here's
the kicker. The two dollar bill was not super popular
and it was actually considered bad luck. Yeah, there's actually
a documentary about this that I saw a while ago.
(05:54):
I need to rewatch it though, but it's by a
dude named John Benardo, and it is in a creativity,
as you would say, been called the two dollar Bill documentary,
I think, with a little bit of tongue planted firmly
in cheek. There. The reason it was unpopular was because,
like you said, ben two dollars at once absurd. People
were making less than fifteen bucks a month for their salaries.
(06:19):
So like, I mean what I mean, I'm not I'm
no math scientists here, but two dollars is quite a
large portion, but not an insignificant portion of that monthly salary.
You know. To be spending that all at once would
be the equivalent of making a massive purchase. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Like imagine, just for improvised example, imagine you have a
(06:45):
one hundred dollar bill and you go to grab food
at a reasonable lunch counter. Now you are that person saying, oh,
do you have changed for a hundred on my five dollars?
You know, soup and sandwich. It's weird, and we were
all talking off air about this. There are a couple
(07:08):
of reasons, aside from superstition, that the two dollar bill
was so unpopular First, there's a lot of inflation going on.
We have a one dollar bill. Why can't we just
have two one dollar bills? Why do we need one
two dollar bill? It's easy. It always felt silly if
things are fifty cents, Why can't I just pay with
(07:28):
a one? Why do I have to flex on folks?
And then another factor, it's unpopular because especially during the
Great Depression, people preferred coins. The New York Times, even
before the Great Depression, was talking some trash about this.
(07:49):
They said gamblers especially considered the two dollar bill to
be unlucky. And I think we have a quote here
they have been avoided as start. I don't know that ter,
but yeah, I got that was sort of the kicker.
But he who sits in the game of Chad, so
the two dollar bill in his pocket is thought to
(08:10):
be saddled with the jinks. And then the bit about
it being avoided as ill starred. I guess that's like, yeah,
referring to you know, astrology, you know, like it's like
there's like a bad bad moon rising kind of vibe. What. Yeah,
it's like the it's like the idea of destiny prophecy. Yeah,
(08:33):
as well, and gangsters are not gangsters. Gamblers gamblers and
gangsters alike are big believers and determinism, so they believe
in fate and destiny. And then you know, there's also
the political corruption. During the eighteen hundreds, you would frequently
(08:53):
use two dollars bills to bribe voters because it was
the lowest amount of money that seemed like an unnecessarily
large amount of money. Yeah, that makes sense. By the way,
two dollars is about fourteen percent of that fifteen dollars
a month salary. I did some quick Google math. There
(09:15):
actually thirteen point three repeating of fifteen bucks a month.
So that's I would say, that's reason enough for this
thing to be kind of redundant, right, or at the
very least, just too extravagant for the average human being.
And this caused the denomination to not be particularly widely circulated. Yeah,
(09:36):
And the Treasury Department was trying to do some pr
stuff in the early nineteen hundreds, and it tried to
do this for decades. It wasn't until the mid nineteen
sixties nineteen sixty six that I gave up, and for
a time the US stopped printeen two dollars bills because
(10:01):
they read the room over more than a half a century,
and they said, oh, I guess people don't want them.
They said, deuces to the deuce. No, I love that
you said deuce. That was the street name for the
(10:22):
two dollars bill for a long time. And deuce is also,
you know, a sideways name for infernal powers, the deuce
the devil. Yeah, it's like dang to damn right, you
say deucedin's the place of devil. It's also you know,
a way the cool kids say goodbye, you know, by
(10:42):
throwing up a piece sign the deuces, you know. And
this played another role in the bill's poor circulation because
they were like vandalized a lot, which technically is what
you call it when you mess with currency. Folks who
would receive a two dollars bill would tear off one
corner are believing somehow that that would reverse the curse
(11:05):
or the jinks or you know, the evil of the deuce.
So a lot of these were seen by you know,
treasury volks, I guess or bankers perhaps and taken out
of circulation because they were considered what is called mutilated currency.
That's the thing, right of those people in Canada that
were spoking their fivers remember that one yes, of course,
(11:26):
and then again in nineteen twenty nine Great Depression. A
lot of stuff is costing less than a dollar. You
don't really have a reason to use a two dollar bill.
It isn't until nineteen seventy five when the Secretary of
the Treasury, William E. Simon says, we're bringing back to
(11:46):
two dollar bill because this is so nuts. He says,
because it costs four point nine cents to print a
one dollar bill and a two dollar bill, and therefore,
long term, it's cheaper to make a two dollar bill.
Just to clarify, Um, I think I maybe even misspoke.
(12:08):
They didn't stop printing it entirely until nineteen sixty six, correct,
and then they come back like like new coke. You know, hey,
where what's what is old? Is now new again? Um?
And to your point, yeah, it was sort of like
a cost saving measure. But doesn't that sound weird? That's
a gird way to think about it, right, It doesn't
(12:28):
make any sense. Why and why? I don't under how
do they justify this? It's why is it cheaper to
make a two dollar bill than to make a one
dollar bill? Because they both cost the same amount of money,
but one represents more value than the other. Icy But
again we know logistically that it's just an odd denomination.
(12:51):
You know, you just drop two dollars. What do we care?
What does the consumer care? You know about? I mean,
I don't know. It doesn't doesn't make much. Not fret
ourselves with the concerns of the common say, the Treasury Department.
It's a very good point. Bet they're not exactly thinking,
not exactly men of the people. So you're right, Ben.
(13:11):
On April thirteenth, nineteen seventy six, which was Thomas Jefferson's birthday,
nice tie in there, you know, for the special drop
of the two dollars. Yeah, exactly. So this was a
redesigned note, I believe, right. Yeah, it was a new
two dollars bill, the new coke of currency. As you said,
(13:33):
it's got a picture depicting the presentation of the Declaration
of Independence to the Continental Congress on the back of
the bill. Thomas Jefferson is all over it because they
relaunch it on his birthday, and the idea was in
the Treasury Department, the reprinting this would increase the use
(13:53):
of the bill and the interest in the two dollars bill,
but it had the absolute opposite effect. A lot of
people of the United States were like, this is for
gamblers and people at houses of ill repute. Pepperidge Farm
remembers right right exactly just so, and so they said,
(14:13):
we're going to take the We're going to get these
two dollar bills, but we're not going to spend them.
We're going to tuck them away. We're going to save
them because this is such a bad idea that I
could sell it on eBay later, they thought, before the invention, right. Well, also,
that's that was always my exposure to the two dollar bill.
(14:35):
I don't know about you, Ben. It sounds to me
like from our offware conversations you maybe came into a
little bit of a stack of them somewhere along the line,
But I always just heard of heard them referred to
kind of as these keepsakes. And maybe in my my
you know, youthful brain, I believe that they were of
value to some degree. What's the deal with that? Like,
(14:58):
were they or were they just work two dollars? Well,
I think they were most often spent as sort of
a flex at least in my time. Like the idea
that people would go to a bank, as they may
do even today, and request a withdrawal entirely in two
(15:18):
dollars bills. And then the most nuts thing about this
is the United States still has a lot of two
dollar bills. If we go to the Cold War in
the nineteen sixties, the US and the Soviet Union super
beefed up, as we like to say on the show,
(15:38):
and they were thinking through what would happen if a
nuclear war took place. They said, the devastation would be astronomical,
but there would probably be survivors in the US, and
the American government would need to put in a lot
of plans to or i say, make America great again,
(16:02):
but in a very different, very different sense, very different sense.
But wouldn't apocalypse money be more efficient? As like, you know,
objects that don't burn fall out taught me bottle caps
are the way to get Bottle caps are good? Or
like even you know coin, uh, perhaps the seashells, you know?
(16:23):
But yeah, I don't know, I don't I'm a little
confused here. What what what? What's the thinking here of
like these being somehow a valuable thing to have around
in the event of a nuclear holocaust. Here's the twist.
So Uncle Sam built a place called Mount Pony, and
the Federal is like a fun place. It sounds like
(16:46):
a weird pun. But the Federation of Americans get back
on the horse, you know, uh, the Federation of American
Scientists describe this. It's a pretty expensive thing. It's a
one hundred foot long bunker with steel reinforced concrete that's
a foot thick, and it's covered up, it's guarded. It's
(17:11):
a vault. Mounts Pony had a bunch of cash on hand.
No one knows how much, maybe two billion dollars cash,
maybe five billion. And the idea was that if there
was a huge disaster, a nuclear war, this place would
be a way to bring US currency back to the forefront.
(17:35):
And it was full of two dollars bills where they
stuffed in two mattresses. They were stuffed in concrete bunkers,
which is like the Cold War equivalent of a mattress.
I guess that's fair, that's fair. I would just think
at that point, I'd rather just have the bunker right
than the cash, right, Like I appreciate I appreciate it, guys,
(17:57):
but I could have just used some canned beans and
the space or or maybe a trip to that Oreo bunker,
remember that one that was one of the one of
the good bunkers, that's one of the good ones. Yeah,
it's way more fun than the seed bunker out there
in h what is that? Norway? That one's important though,
that one, that one that would argue way more valuable
(18:19):
than a bunker full of two dollar bills. All right,
as we as we know, money is made up anyway,
So it's like this idea of like, let's get the
currency back in play. I think there are more bigger
fish to fry in this in this nuclear scenario that
we're describing. Then let's get back to the two dollar bills. Yeah,
let's maintain the security of us back fiat currency. So,
(18:43):
speaking of which, you say fiat currency, and I've always
just been a little foggy on like, you know, I
know there's no gold standard. I know that, you know
cash money isn't technically backed by like some giant vault
full of gold bricks. But so what does fiat currency mean?
And like where does the value of cash actually come
(19:03):
from other than just a wish and a promise from
Uncle Sam. Well, let me give you, let's do two
optional definitions. Fiat currency generally is going to be any
currency that is not backed by a physical commodity, so
not tied to a gold standard, for instance. And I
(19:27):
would argue this might not be something all our fellow
ridiculous historians agree with me on. But I would argue
that the US currency, being the de facto reserve currency
of the world, is backed by the threat of the
US military. It's certainly a kind of a loan sharky
(19:48):
kind of way of enforcing, you know, the idea of value.
You know what I mean. It would be a shameless
something happened to your oops, snucked your vase off the
table there butter fingers, you know, the vase being your civilization.
Thank you. Yeah, go with me. So this uh, this
bunker mounts Pony, which is again a ridiculous name. It
(20:12):
looks to be an exercise and almost catch twenty two surrealism.
Nobody wanted the two dollar bills, so they had to
do something, and they said, we're preserving the world by
making these two dollar bills mean something in case of
a nuclear war. Now, now it's nuts, because if we
(20:34):
look at the two dollar bill today, there are so
many out there they still haven't caught on. I don't
think they're super popular. When's the last time you saw
one in the wild? And to my point earlier, just
about like I think, how we both, probably all three
of us probably grew up you know, thinking about two
dollar bills always, just as does keepsake, you know, or
(20:56):
some little kind of novelty. Right, But again, my idiot
brain kind of thought maybe it was like valuable, like
it was worth more, like what if it's worth three dollars,
you know, even that would be insane. But no, it's not.
It's not like a buffalo nickel or you know, even
like other kind of more value like slightly valuable vintage coins. Right.
(21:16):
A two dollar bill is still available, like you said,
you can get them at the bank if you ask.
And there's a really great article on wytv dot com
about the history of the two dollar bill that points
out that the lifespan of a one dollar bill is
only approximately eighteen months, but a two dollar bill lasts
(21:37):
about six years because people don't spend them. Yeah, and hey,
shout out to the older one dollar bills. Whenever I
see a one dollar bill, that small guy, right, yeah, small, Yeah,
it's older. I love him. I love him. One of
my family members, somewhat new and sculptor or collected a
(22:02):
lot of currency because he was a very, very weird dude,
and I didn't recognize the history he was showing me
with his again, very strange collection. And the two dollar
bill now is still occasionally printed because, like you said, nold,
people will request it at banks. But also there's not
(22:27):
a big support structure for them, Like your average cash
register doesn't have a slot for a two dollar bill.
What is it? Ones, fives, tens, twenties, and the big
the big bucks they go. Yeah, and that's probably where
the two dollar bills go. But of course two dollar
bills have become a kind of social currency as much
(22:52):
as a currency currency. Wow, that was a bad job
because I speak English apparently not fluently. No, no, not degrade,
You got that. That's all that matters. People tip two
dollar bills to be remembered, which is why they are
(23:16):
popular in dancing halls, for instance, or why they're popular
in certain restaurants, would be the diplomatic way to phrase it. Yeah,
And speaking of being diplomatic, we did leave out the
fact that two dollars was the going rate for a
dalliance with a sex worker. Let us just say, back
(23:38):
in the early days of two dollar bills, so they
were sometimes referred to as a pejorative for the sex
worker bill, right or notes. Yeah, the double the word.
We don't say it because it's gross. It's gross. And also,
gamblers used to get paid their winnings entirely in two
(24:00):
dollar bills. So there's the thing. There's this whole group
of people, the whole community that wants to bring back
the two dollar bill. One blog about this is called
two Buckaroo, and I think we talked about this in
the past. The idea is that you save, like you
(24:20):
can save the two dollar bill and keep the US
Treasury printing it, not just by secreting them away, but
by spending them actively. What's the name again for people
that collect currency not a philists. Yeah, that's that's a
fun one. And then and then then there's the one
(24:41):
for coins that we talked about a previous episode that
neither one of us quite got right off. It's it's newmismatists,
new Smiths matists. Yeah, I knew it was a silly
goofy word. Um, but that two dollar bill documentary actually,
which is available on YouTube, and it's pretty great. It
is pretty good, and it does kind of go into
(25:02):
some of the more like you know, niche sort of
communities of folks that really take the stuff seriously. I
don't think we mentioned that YouTube. Fighter jet pilots typically
will carry a two dollar bill on them, I guess,
because you know there's a two in the name of
their plane. Yeah, and we want to close by shalonaar
(25:22):
Pale Matthew zach Led who uses about seven thousand two
dollar bills per year entirely because he believes this will
quote create meaningful interactions and otherwise mundane encounters that seems
like it is triggering a social hack of of some sort.
(25:48):
And there are I would say, there are many more
examples of the two dollar bill as social currency, Like
it's not uncommon to see mentions of two dollar bills
in human interest stories throughout the nineteen eighties even to
(26:10):
the present day. No. No, if we look at the
news on two dollar bills just now, just so a
little quick internet search, do we see anything interesting? Uh? Yeah, yeah,
we do. Ben It goes against pretty much everything I've
been saying at this point about two dollar bills being
like you know, kind of run of the mill, not
(26:30):
necessarily worth anything, not really collectors items, not everything. But
apparently there are some very specific two dollar notes that
are worth upwards of forty five hundred dollars, it says
here on an article on Massachusetts Live dot com. For
most of the history two dollar notes of unpopular beeview
(26:53):
is unlucky. But there are these kind of pre reissue
from that reissue we were talking about, where there are
certain two dollar bills that have a red seal, those
that were printed before in eighteen ninety and then uncirculated.
Those if you see one, could be worth around forty
(27:13):
five hundred bucks. There are other general bills with this
red seal that aren't quite reaching, you know, fetching those,
but if they're the last prices thirty years, they're still
worth hundreds three hundred bucks to twenty five hundred. There
are some other types of seals, brown or blue, that
are also worth several hundreds. So disregard what I said
(27:35):
in general, most of them, Yeah, they're they're they're not.
That's the kicker is they're not rare, but they're not
like common either. It's well, but if you that's I
think that's the most important part for us here and
for you. Let's stay at home, fellow ridiculous historians. No
matter how much your two dollar bill is actually worth,
(27:57):
it's only worth two dollars at the cash regis, So
do do take caution. It is worth your time. You
can check out places like the US Currency Auctions website
or USCA, which will give you a list of exactly
what Noel's talking about here. It's kind of weird, you
know what I mean, Like, maybe that is part of
(28:18):
the appeal when people are paying with a two dollar bill.
Maybe I'm secretly giving you thousands of dollars. I don't know.
Are people thinking that way? You know? I'm not sure,
but I will say I do think the idea of
like laundering money through like really really rare stamps or
(28:40):
you know, currency or coins or whatever is really interesting.
I just wanted to give a film recommendation. I think
we talked about this, but I've been on this kind
of noir kick lately and watched a film called Charade
starring Audrey Hepburn and Carrie Grant's like a sixties kind
of romance, thriller, noir kind of thing, and it involves
a plot of about stealing a large amount of money
(29:02):
and hiding it in an unusual place. That's all I'm
gonna say. That's perfect. And in this case, we're going
to have to stop and count all of our two
dollar bills? Which one two right right right? Or two
four six eight. We want to give a special thanks
(29:23):
to everybody who helps this show exist. Mister Max Williams
our super producer. Max, what's your two dollar bill experience?
We ask you today? Oh? I love them the best?
All right, so Max is sketchy pro produce, maxis produce,
(29:44):
super producer producer it. Um, yeah, it wasn't really, but
thank you. I appreciate the gesture. There is a guy, though,
to to continue with this extended wrap up, who is
pushing for more wide adoption of dollar bills. It's just
the guy who's Actually it would make sense who this
guy is. He is, in fact a curator at the
(30:06):
American Numismatic Society, a guy with the name of Jesse
Kraft that he describes this dollar bill very suc saftly. Thusly,
there is a degree of popularity to them, there is
a sense of excitement. But as far as putting them
back in the circulation, that's the key that's missing. And
he has a good argument about he has a good
(30:26):
argument about the cost to the treasury again and still
about half as expensive for the Treasury to print a
two dollar bill than it is for other denominations. And
now a two dollar bill isn't like you know, your mortgage,
you know, or like like like what is it a
quarter of your of your monthly income. So you know, yeah,
(30:49):
I'm all about it, but we haven't really talked about
the fact that we did a little bit of the top.
You know, cash is just becoming less and less popular.
There are places that actively don't accept cash, unless you're
in New York, where people either only take cash or
take note cash right and most in most of the
world still cash in some version is king. So I'm
(31:12):
gonna restart an ending and thank mister Max Williams. Max,
I'm sorry I call I called you sketchy. I just
thought it was a fun bit. Do you do you
find yourself sketchy? Do you find yourself in a lot
of two dollar bill situations? I can neither confirm nor
deny that class. I have seen sketching in little notebooks
from time to time. I have seen you counting in
(31:34):
twos as well, So let's let's do our thank yous
and two's thanks to Jonathan strangling to aka the Quister.
Thanks to you, Noel Brown. Um, I guess collectively we
would be a three dollar bill. Yeah, I'll go with that. Hey, Well,
as an idea, we should we should fill out a
comment card and send it to the Treasury see if
(31:55):
they'll see if they'll go with our idea three dollar bills,
why not. We'll see you next time, folks. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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