Latest / Ridiculous History / The Weird Journey of the $2 Bill

Transcript

The Weird Journey of the $2 Bill · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: for tuning in. Before we get down to the brass
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: taxi currency, let's give it up for the man the
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: myth legend, mister Max Williams. He is the two dollar
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: bill man. He keeps saying that uncle Kutchu. He was
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: supposed to say it, to which I was just going
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: to respond, cuckoo couchu. But he didn't say it, so
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I had to say the whole thing. And I forgot
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: to say he's our superproducer Andy, and I should say
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: that because I made up the term superproducer. But look,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: you're an old brown. I'm Ben Bowling, and we have
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: both lived in a world with a bunch of coupons
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: called dollars. Most of the most of our fellow Ridiculous
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: historians tuning in probably have touched less cash over the
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: years of what A saynal yeah, and less grass too,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: less grass. Yeah, so they say to touch grass, it's
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: important to touch grass, leave your home. Oh I see, yeah, yeah,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: but I mean during the pandemic, right, A lot of
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: cash less like uh, I don't know when's the when's
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: the last time you interacted with a stack of US dollars?
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't know about a stack, but I
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: am currently in possession of a one hundred dollar note. Ah,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: same say that just it just goes in a drawer.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: I don't know what to do with it. It's basically
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: useless to me. I like to take it out and
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: look at it it, hold it up to the light
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: and see all the little anti counterfeiting measures. I like
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: to light my cigars with it. That's what I'm going
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: to use it for. You know, for a long time,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: my girlfriend worked at a credit union, and she is
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: one of the ways that I learned about two dollar bills.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: It's strange because you don't often see a two dollar
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: bill in the wild. And this is something that also
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: caught the attention of our research associate, Jeff. And this
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: is very close to Jeff. I think he went through
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: some stuff where he was trying to figure out where
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: the two dollar bill came from and come to find,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: fellow ridiculous historians, the two dollar bill, the very first
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: two dollar note, is a little more than a week
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: older than the United States America. You say, oh, we
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: do right, It's like on June twenty fifth, seventeen seventy six,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: the Continental Congress authorized the creation of two dollar denominations
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: as quote unquote bills of credit for you know, the
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: coming war. Yeah, and like you know, what's what's a
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: C note? Is that a hondo? I like guess c
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: notte as a houndo. But they referred to these things
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: as continentals, So a different kind of C note, a
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: two dollar bill and again named after the Continental Congress.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: In eighteen sixty two, the federal government started printing paper money,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: and then the first you know experiment with currency, the
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: two dollar bill was included. It was really I say
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: experiment only half joking. It really was so that they
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: were trying because at the time coins were much more popular.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: The idea of a of a thing that was worth something,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: you know, because of the precious metals it contained for
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: all intends and purposes, like like an iou right, yeah, man. Also,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: if we consider at this time, two dollars was a
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: lot of money to just be growing around, which is
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: probably the reason both of us have our current one
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: hundred dollar bills that we take out and admire. I mean,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: you know, most people are not going to be spending
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: two dollars at a time at a time in the
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: eighteen sixties. This is where, this is where we want
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: to shout out a great article from Mental Fluss by
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Hannah Kaiser, who notes, as you said, the two dollar
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: bill was first printed in eighteen sixty two as official
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: US currency instead of Continental Congress currency or whatever. US
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Treasury started printing money in about eighteen sixty one, and
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: the two dollar bill went through a couple of different iterations.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: I think first it was Alexander Hamilton, and a few
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: years after that it was it was Max's boy, Tommy
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: jay TJ to his friends, and now I believe his
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: mug graces the ten. Yeah, and I love the point
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: you make about coins, right, It can be a bit
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: of an unexpected cold shower for many people in the
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: US to go to a country like Japan where coins
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: are a big thing, or some European countries where coins
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: are still a big thing. Paper money, you don't automatically
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: trust it, especially back in the eighteen hundreds. And here's
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: the kicker. The two dollar bill was not super popular
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: and it was actually considered bad luck. Yeah, there's actually
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: a documentary about this that I saw a while ago.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: I need to rewatch it though, but it's by a
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: dude named John Benardo, and it is in a creativity,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: as you would say, been called the two dollar Bill documentary,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: I think, with a little bit of tongue planted firmly
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: in cheek. There. The reason it was unpopular was because,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: like you said, ben two dollars at once absurd. People
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: were making less than fifteen bucks a month for their salaries.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: So like, I mean what I mean, I'm not I'm
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: no math scientists here, but two dollars is quite a
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: large portion, but not an insignificant portion of that monthly salary.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: You know. To be spending that all at once would
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: be the equivalent of making a massive purchase. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Like imagine, just for improvised example, imagine you have a
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: one hundred dollar bill and you go to grab food
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: at a reasonable lunch counter. Now you are that person saying, oh,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: do you have changed for a hundred on my five dollars?
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: You know, soup and sandwich. It's weird, and we were
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: all talking off air about this. There are a couple
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: of reasons, aside from superstition, that the two dollar bill
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: was so unpopular First, there's a lot of inflation going on.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: We have a one dollar bill. Why can't we just
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: have two one dollar bills? Why do we need one
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: two dollar bill? It's easy. It always felt silly if
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: things are fifty cents, Why can't I just pay with
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: a one? Why do I have to flex on folks?
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: And then another factor, it's unpopular because especially during the
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Great Depression, people preferred coins. The New York Times, even
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: before the Great Depression, was talking some trash about this.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: They said gamblers especially considered the two dollar bill to
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: be unlucky. And I think we have a quote here
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: they have been avoided as start. I don't know that ter,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: but yeah, I got that was sort of the kicker.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: But he who sits in the game of Chad, so
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: the two dollar bill in his pocket is thought to
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: be saddled with the jinks. And then the bit about
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: it being avoided as ill starred. I guess that's like, yeah,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: referring to you know, astrology, you know, like it's like
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: there's like a bad bad moon rising kind of vibe. What. Yeah,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: it's like the it's like the idea of destiny prophecy. Yeah,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: as well, and gangsters are not gangsters. Gamblers gamblers and
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: gangsters alike are big believers and determinism, so they believe
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: in fate and destiny. And then you know, there's also
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: the political corruption. During the eighteen hundreds, you would frequently
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: use two dollars bills to bribe voters because it was
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: the lowest amount of money that seemed like an unnecessarily
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: large amount of money. Yeah, that makes sense. By the way,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: two dollars is about fourteen percent of that fifteen dollars
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: a month salary. I did some quick Google math. There
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: actually thirteen point three repeating of fifteen bucks a month.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: So that's I would say, that's reason enough for this
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: thing to be kind of redundant, right, or at the
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: very least, just too extravagant for the average human being.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: And this caused the denomination to not be particularly widely circulated. Yeah,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: And the Treasury Department was trying to do some pr
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: stuff in the early nineteen hundreds, and it tried to
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: do this for decades. It wasn't until the mid nineteen
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: sixties nineteen sixty six that I gave up, and for
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: a time the US stopped printeen two dollars bills because
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: they read the room over more than a half a century,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: and they said, oh, I guess people don't want them.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: They said, deuces to the deuce. No, I love that
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: you said deuce. That was the street name for the
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: two dollars bill for a long time. And deuce is also,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: you know, a sideways name for infernal powers, the deuce
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: the devil. Yeah, it's like dang to damn right, you
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: say deucedin's the place of devil. It's also you know,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: a way the cool kids say goodbye, you know, by
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: throwing up a piece sign the deuces, you know. And
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: this played another role in the bill's poor circulation because
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: they were like vandalized a lot, which technically is what
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: you call it when you mess with currency. Folks who
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: would receive a two dollars bill would tear off one
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: corner are believing somehow that that would reverse the curse
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: or the jinks or you know, the evil of the deuce.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: So a lot of these were seen by you know,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: treasury volks, I guess or bankers perhaps and taken out
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: of circulation because they were considered what is called mutilated currency.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: That's the thing, right of those people in Canada that
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: were spoking their fivers remember that one yes, of course,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: and then again in nineteen twenty nine Great Depression. A
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: lot of stuff is costing less than a dollar. You
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: don't really have a reason to use a two dollar bill.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: It isn't until nineteen seventy five when the Secretary of
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: the Treasury, William E. Simon says, we're bringing back to
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: two dollar bill because this is so nuts. He says,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: because it costs four point nine cents to print a
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: one dollar bill and a two dollar bill, and therefore,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: long term, it's cheaper to make a two dollar bill.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Just to clarify, Um, I think I maybe even misspoke.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: They didn't stop printing it entirely until nineteen sixty six, correct,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: and then they come back like like new coke. You know, hey,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: where what's what is old? Is now new again? Um?
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: And to your point, yeah, it was sort of like
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: a cost saving measure. But doesn't that sound weird? That's
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: a gird way to think about it, right, It doesn't
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: make any sense. Why and why? I don't under how
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: do they justify this? It's why is it cheaper to
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: make a two dollar bill than to make a one
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: dollar bill? Because they both cost the same amount of money,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: but one represents more value than the other. Icy But
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: again we know logistically that it's just an odd denomination.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: You know, you just drop two dollars. What do we care?
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: What does the consumer care? You know about? I mean,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: I don't know. It doesn't doesn't make much. Not fret
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: ourselves with the concerns of the common say, the Treasury Department.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: It's a very good point. Bet they're not exactly thinking,
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: not exactly men of the people. So you're right, Ben.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: On April thirteenth, nineteen seventy six, which was Thomas Jefferson's birthday,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: nice tie in there, you know, for the special drop
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: of the two dollars. Yeah, exactly. So this was a
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: redesigned note, I believe, right. Yeah, it was a new
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: two dollars bill, the new coke of currency. As you said,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: it's got a picture depicting the presentation of the Declaration
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: of Independence to the Continental Congress on the back of
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: the bill. Thomas Jefferson is all over it because they
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: relaunch it on his birthday, and the idea was in
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: the Treasury Department, the reprinting this would increase the use
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: of the bill and the interest in the two dollars bill,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: but it had the absolute opposite effect. A lot of
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: people of the United States were like, this is for
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: gamblers and people at houses of ill repute. Pepperidge Farm
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: remembers right right exactly just so, and so they said,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: we're going to take the We're going to get these
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: two dollar bills, but we're not going to spend them.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: We're going to tuck them away. We're going to save
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: them because this is such a bad idea that I
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: could sell it on eBay later, they thought, before the invention, right. Well, also,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: that's that was always my exposure to the two dollar bill.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: I don't know about you, Ben. It sounds to me
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: like from our offware conversations you maybe came into a
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: little bit of a stack of them somewhere along the line,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: But I always just heard of heard them referred to
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: kind of as these keepsakes. And maybe in my my
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: you know, youthful brain, I believe that they were of
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: value to some degree. What's the deal with that? Like,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: were they or were they just work two dollars? Well,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: I think they were most often spent as sort of
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: a flex at least in my time. Like the idea
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: that people would go to a bank, as they may
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: do even today, and request a withdrawal entirely in two
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: dollars bills. And then the most nuts thing about this
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: is the United States still has a lot of two
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: dollar bills. If we go to the Cold War in
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties, the US and the Soviet Union super
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: beefed up, as we like to say on the show,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: and they were thinking through what would happen if a
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: nuclear war took place. They said, the devastation would be astronomical,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: but there would probably be survivors in the US, and
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: the American government would need to put in a lot
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: of plans to or i say, make America great again,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: but in a very different, very different sense, very different sense.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: But wouldn't apocalypse money be more efficient? As like, you know,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: objects that don't burn fall out taught me bottle caps
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: are the way to get Bottle caps are good? Or
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: like even you know coin, uh, perhaps the seashells, you know?
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't know, I don't I'm a little
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: confused here. What what what? What's the thinking here of
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: like these being somehow a valuable thing to have around
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: in the event of a nuclear holocaust. Here's the twist.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: So Uncle Sam built a place called Mount Pony, and
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: the Federal is like a fun place. It sounds like
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: a weird pun. But the Federation of Americans get back
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: on the horse, you know, uh, the Federation of American
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Scientists describe this. It's a pretty expensive thing. It's a
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: one hundred foot long bunker with steel reinforced concrete that's
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: a foot thick, and it's covered up, it's guarded. It's
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: a vault. Mounts Pony had a bunch of cash on hand.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: No one knows how much, maybe two billion dollars cash,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: maybe five billion. And the idea was that if there
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: was a huge disaster, a nuclear war, this place would
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: be a way to bring US currency back to the forefront.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: And it was full of two dollars bills where they
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: stuffed in two mattresses. They were stuffed in concrete bunkers,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: which is like the Cold War equivalent of a mattress.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: I guess that's fair, that's fair. I would just think
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: at that point, I'd rather just have the bunker right
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: than the cash, right, Like I appreciate I appreciate it, guys,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: but I could have just used some canned beans and
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: the space or or maybe a trip to that Oreo bunker,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: remember that one that was one of the one of
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: the good bunkers, that's one of the good ones. Yeah,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: it's way more fun than the seed bunker out there
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: in h what is that? Norway? That one's important though,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: that one, that one that would argue way more valuable
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: than a bunker full of two dollar bills. All right,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: as we as we know, money is made up anyway,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: So it's like this idea of like, let's get the
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: currency back in play. I think there are more bigger
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: fish to fry in this in this nuclear scenario that
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: we're describing. Then let's get back to the two dollar bills. Yeah,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: let's maintain the security of us back fiat currency. So,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: speaking of which, you say fiat currency, and I've always
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: just been a little foggy on like, you know, I
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: know there's no gold standard. I know that, you know
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: cash money isn't technically backed by like some giant vault
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: full of gold bricks. But so what does fiat currency mean?
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: And like where does the value of cash actually come
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: from other than just a wish and a promise from
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Uncle Sam. Well, let me give you, let's do two
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: optional definitions. Fiat currency generally is going to be any
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: currency that is not backed by a physical commodity, so
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: not tied to a gold standard, for instance. And I
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: would argue this might not be something all our fellow
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: ridiculous historians agree with me on. But I would argue
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: that the US currency, being the de facto reserve currency
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: of the world, is backed by the threat of the
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: US military. It's certainly a kind of a loan sharky
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: kind of way of enforcing, you know, the idea of value.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean. It would be a shameless
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: something happened to your oops, snucked your vase off the
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: table there butter fingers, you know, the vase being your civilization.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Thank you. Yeah, go with me. So this uh, this
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: bunker mounts Pony, which is again a ridiculous name. It
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: looks to be an exercise and almost catch twenty two surrealism.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Nobody wanted the two dollar bills, so they had to
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: do something, and they said, we're preserving the world by
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: making these two dollar bills mean something in case of
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: a nuclear war. Now, now it's nuts, because if we
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: look at the two dollar bill today, there are so
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: many out there they still haven't caught on. I don't
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: think they're super popular. When's the last time you saw
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: one in the wild? And to my point earlier, just
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: about like I think, how we both, probably all three
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: of us probably grew up you know, thinking about two
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: dollar bills always, just as does keepsake, you know, or
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: some little kind of novelty. Right, But again, my idiot
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: brain kind of thought maybe it was like valuable, like
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: it was worth more, like what if it's worth three dollars,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: you know, even that would be insane. But no, it's not.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: It's not like a buffalo nickel or you know, even
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: like other kind of more value like slightly valuable vintage coins. Right.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: A two dollar bill is still available, like you said,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: you can get them at the bank if you ask.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: And there's a really great article on wytv dot com
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: about the history of the two dollar bill that points
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: out that the lifespan of a one dollar bill is
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: only approximately eighteen months, but a two dollar bill lasts
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: about six years because people don't spend them. Yeah, and hey,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: shout out to the older one dollar bills. Whenever I
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: see a one dollar bill, that small guy, right, yeah, small, Yeah,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: it's older. I love him. I love him. One of
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: my family members, somewhat new and sculptor or collected a
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: lot of currency because he was a very, very weird dude,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: and I didn't recognize the history he was showing me
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: with his again, very strange collection. And the two dollar
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: bill now is still occasionally printed because, like you said, nold,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: people will request it at banks. But also there's not
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: a big support structure for them, Like your average cash
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: register doesn't have a slot for a two dollar bill.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: What is it? Ones, fives, tens, twenties, and the big
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: the big bucks they go. Yeah, and that's probably where
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: the two dollar bills go. But of course two dollar
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: bills have become a kind of social currency as much
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: as a currency currency. Wow, that was a bad job
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: because I speak English apparently not fluently. No, no, not degrade,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: You got that. That's all that matters. People tip two
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: dollar bills to be remembered, which is why they are
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: popular in dancing halls, for instance, or why they're popular
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: in certain restaurants, would be the diplomatic way to phrase it. Yeah,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: And speaking of being diplomatic, we did leave out the
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: fact that two dollars was the going rate for a
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: dalliance with a sex worker. Let us just say, back
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: in the early days of two dollar bills, so they
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: were sometimes referred to as a pejorative for the sex
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: worker bill, right or notes. Yeah, the double the word.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: We don't say it because it's gross. It's gross. And also,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: gamblers used to get paid their winnings entirely in two
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: dollar bills. So there's the thing. There's this whole group
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: of people, the whole community that wants to bring back
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: the two dollar bill. One blog about this is called
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: two Buckaroo, and I think we talked about this in
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: the past. The idea is that you save, like you
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: can save the two dollar bill and keep the US
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Treasury printing it, not just by secreting them away, but
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: by spending them actively. What's the name again for people
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: that collect currency not a philists. Yeah, that's that's a
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: fun one. And then and then then there's the one
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: for coins that we talked about a previous episode that
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: neither one of us quite got right off. It's it's newmismatists,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: new Smiths matists. Yeah, I knew it was a silly
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: goofy word. Um, but that two dollar bill documentary actually,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: which is available on YouTube, and it's pretty great. It
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: is pretty good, and it does kind of go into
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: some of the more like you know, niche sort of
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: communities of folks that really take the stuff seriously. I
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: don't think we mentioned that YouTube. Fighter jet pilots typically
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: will carry a two dollar bill on them, I guess,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: because you know there's a two in the name of
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: their plane. Yeah, and we want to close by shalonaar
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Pale Matthew zach Led who uses about seven thousand two
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: dollar bills per year entirely because he believes this will
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: quote create meaningful interactions and otherwise mundane encounters that seems
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: like it is triggering a social hack of of some sort.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: And there are I would say, there are many more
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: examples of the two dollar bill as social currency, Like
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: it's not uncommon to see mentions of two dollar bills
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: in human interest stories throughout the nineteen eighties even to
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: the present day. No. No, if we look at the
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: news on two dollar bills just now, just so a
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: little quick internet search, do we see anything interesting? Uh? Yeah, yeah,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: we do. Ben It goes against pretty much everything I've
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: been saying at this point about two dollar bills being
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: like you know, kind of run of the mill, not
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: necessarily worth anything, not really collectors items, not everything. But
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: apparently there are some very specific two dollar notes that
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: are worth upwards of forty five hundred dollars, it says
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: here on an article on Massachusetts Live dot com. For
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: most of the history two dollar notes of unpopular beeview
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: is unlucky. But there are these kind of pre reissue
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: from that reissue we were talking about, where there are
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: certain two dollar bills that have a red seal, those
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: that were printed before in eighteen ninety and then uncirculated.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: Those if you see one, could be worth around forty
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: five hundred bucks. There are other general bills with this
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: red seal that aren't quite reaching, you know, fetching those,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: but if they're the last prices thirty years, they're still
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: worth hundreds three hundred bucks to twenty five hundred. There
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: are some other types of seals, brown or blue, that
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: are also worth several hundreds. So disregard what I said
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: in general, most of them, Yeah, they're they're they're not.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: That's the kicker is they're not rare, but they're not
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: like common either. It's well, but if you that's I
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: think that's the most important part for us here and
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: for you. Let's stay at home, fellow ridiculous historians. No
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: matter how much your two dollar bill is actually worth,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: it's only worth two dollars at the cash regis, So
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: do do take caution. It is worth your time. You
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: can check out places like the US Currency Auctions website
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: or USCA, which will give you a list of exactly
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: what Noel's talking about here. It's kind of weird, you
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like, maybe that is part of
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: the appeal when people are paying with a two dollar bill.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Maybe I'm secretly giving you thousands of dollars. I don't know.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: Are people thinking that way? You know? I'm not sure,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: but I will say I do think the idea of
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: like laundering money through like really really rare stamps or
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: you know, currency or coins or whatever is really interesting.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to give a film recommendation. I think
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: we talked about this, but I've been on this kind
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: of noir kick lately and watched a film called Charade
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: starring Audrey Hepburn and Carrie Grant's like a sixties kind
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: of romance, thriller, noir kind of thing, and it involves
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: a plot of about stealing a large amount of money
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: and hiding it in an unusual place. That's all I'm
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: gonna say. That's perfect. And in this case, we're going
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: to have to stop and count all of our two
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: dollar bills? Which one two right right right? Or two
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: four six eight. We want to give a special thanks
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: to everybody who helps this show exist. Mister Max Williams
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: our super producer. Max, what's your two dollar bill experience?
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: We ask you today? Oh? I love them the best?
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: All right, so Max is sketchy pro produce, maxis produce,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: super producer producer it. Um, yeah, it wasn't really, but
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: thank you. I appreciate the gesture. There is a guy, though,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: to to continue with this extended wrap up, who is
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: pushing for more wide adoption of dollar bills. It's just
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: the guy who's Actually it would make sense who this
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: guy is. He is, in fact a curator at the
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: American Numismatic Society, a guy with the name of Jesse
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: Kraft that he describes this dollar bill very suc saftly. Thusly,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: there is a degree of popularity to them, there is
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: a sense of excitement. But as far as putting them
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: back in the circulation, that's the key that's missing. And
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: he has a good argument about he has a good
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: argument about the cost to the treasury again and still
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: about half as expensive for the Treasury to print a
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: two dollar bill than it is for other denominations. And
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: now a two dollar bill isn't like you know, your mortgage,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: you know, or like like like what is it a
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: quarter of your of your monthly income. So you know, yeah,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: I'm all about it, but we haven't really talked about
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: the fact that we did a little bit of the top.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: You know, cash is just becoming less and less popular.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: There are places that actively don't accept cash, unless you're
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: in New York, where people either only take cash or
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: take note cash right and most in most of the
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: world still cash in some version is king. So I'm
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: gonna restart an ending and thank mister Max Williams. Max,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry I call I called you sketchy. I just
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: thought it was a fun bit. Do you do you
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: find yourself sketchy? Do you find yourself in a lot
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: of two dollar bill situations? I can neither confirm nor
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: deny that class. I have seen sketching in little notebooks
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: from time to time. I have seen you counting in
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: twos as well, So let's let's do our thank yous
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: and two's thanks to Jonathan strangling to aka the Quister.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Thanks to you, Noel Brown. Um, I guess collectively we
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: would be a three dollar bill. Yeah, I'll go with that. Hey, Well,
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: as an idea, we should we should fill out a
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: comment card and send it to the Treasury see if
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: they'll see if they'll go with our idea three dollar bills,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: why not. We'll see you next time, folks. For more
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.