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CLASSIC: What's the deal with two-dollar bills? · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, ridiculous historians. You often hear my pal Noel Brown
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: and my pal Max Williams and me Ben Bullen talk
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: about our two cents, you know, adjusting for inflation, our
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: two cents.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: That's key, you got to adjust for inflation. But also,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: I don't know what has it been philiology, philology, philology, bonus.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Points, sir.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Now that's a great a bit of a fail.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: So if you live in the United States, you may
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: have run into a bit of a cryptid of currency,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: a two dollars bill. Now, this will be familiar to
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: folks who work with cash. Often we're talking to bank tellers,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: we're talking to people at adult entertainment clubs and casinos,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: you know, but two dollars bills are weird, right, dul Max?
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: What do you guys think, when's the last time you
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: saw one?
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Well, I think there was a time where there were
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: maybe not as unusual as people might think, and they
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: are certainly still legal tender, and there's kind of an
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: interesting little cult around two dollars bills in terms of
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: collecting them. But I don't think I've seen one in
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: a very long time. But there was a time where
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: I do remember coming across them every now and again.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, there is a group of people who
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: really enjoy them. And it should not be surprising when
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: I say Jeff Williams is one of those people who
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: very much loves the two dollars bill. But yeah, I mean,
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: I believe they're not in production that much anymore or
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: at all.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: You have to go to the bank and ask for them, right,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: And the question of production I think gets answered in
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: this here episode on the Ridiculous History of the two
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: dollars Bill.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome to the show,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen. Today we have something that a few
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: people might call controversial. We're talking about Tom's We're talking
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: about deuces. We're talking about two dollars bills. I'm bet
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: two dollars bills.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Rule everything around me? Then, right, cream and some money
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: two dollar bills? Yo, No, it's me No.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: And of course we were joined with our super producer
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Casey and Begram Casey. I'm laughing because off air, I
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: was wondering if we should give you some kind of
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: currency related nickname for this for this show.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: How about Casey Greenback's pegrim? I like that?
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sold.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: I'm cool, Ben. You know, I only really recently realized
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: that cream stands for cash rules everything around me. Really, Yeah, I'm.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: A huge fan that concept. But not just the acronym cream.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: I'm a fan of all of the multitudes of slang
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: words we have made for currency, sure, both in the
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: US and abra scratch, yeah, cheese, scrilla, cabbage, grip, Yeah,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: there's grip, a stack a bill. It's so it's so
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: contextual and so ubiquitous now, and there's such a wide
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: range of slang words that I feel like if you
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: if you say just a made up phrase while you're
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: handing someone money, then they will believe that slang for money.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: So if I, if you and I and Casey were
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: at Dave and Busters or something, I.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Have their own currency.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Oh crap, Yeah, they be just to thatsters flusterbucks Yeah,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: a pale shadow of Ben Bucks from what I hear.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Objective.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: So, but here, like, imagine this, so we're in you know,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: we're in some place I don't know, a Ritzy club
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: or something.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: About the Ritz Carlton.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: There we go literally ritzy. Yes, well that's we're at
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: the Ritz Carlton. And if we pay someone at the
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: hotel counter and then we say, well, let me throw
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: a couple of pony bones away, and it's like two
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: twenty dollars bills. They're just gonna roll with it. Yeah,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: and they may later refer to cash as pony bones,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: which is kind of morbid.
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: I would maybe be something like, yeah, let me grease
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: your palm with a couple of these sweet Jim Jams.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Jim Jams, Jim Jams.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: Why not.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: I feel like, yeah, I feel like we've established this
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: interesting etymology that's still evolving. But today's episode, as we said,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: is about something a little controversial in the world of
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: US currency. The two dollars bill, the deuce, the tom Yeah,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: the tom m that's what the slaying terms for it.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love it.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you at the top here, do
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: you have a lot of experience with two dollars bills?
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Do you have a like a story or did something
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: happen to you?
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  Speaker 2: Well, all of my life savings are in two dollars
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: bills inside of dirty mattresses, that's the truth.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: And you save money that you would have otherwise had
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: to spend on cleaning the mattresses.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Well, it's also like, you know, they're super rare, right Ben, So,
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: I mean they're gonna one day be worth well more
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: than two dollars apiece, my man, Am I right? Sure?
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: They're worth their weight of in saffron and gold.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: And pony bones diamond dust. Yeah, but no, that is
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: a common misconception though, right, the two dollars bills are
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: rare and you should hang on to them, which is
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: kind of a funny little conundrum that we'll get into
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: a little later. But why don't we start off with
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: sort of the broad strokes. What's the history of the deuce?
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Excellent, excellent point to begin. The deuce or the tom
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: first comes to the United States, it's first printed, that
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: is in eighteen sixty two. Before that time, the States
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: would allow banks to print their own currency, and that
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: was pretty problematic. There's a good illustration of it in
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: this documentary you and I watched called the two dollar
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Bill Documentary, the two dollars.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: Bill document and a burst of creativity. So not to
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: try to be addicted to the filmmakers, it's very very good,
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: but come on.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Guys, right, that's by a writer and director, John Bernardo,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: and in there they have some experts explain how the
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: problem with bank issued currency is that the further away
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: you are from the bank physically, the less likely other
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: institutions are to accept it at full face value.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: They call them broken banknotes.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Right, yeah, so like a bank in Florida prints out
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: a two dollars bill or five dollars bill, it doesn't matter.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: A bank in Maine might say, will give you fifty
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: cents for.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: It, that's really funny. Or they might also just be like,
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: get this trash out of my face.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, get this this, get this flori to rag out
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: of here.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Well, it's sort of the same idea as you know,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: trading in items like if you know, I say a
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: shell or some sort of you know, carved wooden piece
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: is worth something, and then I take it to some
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: other community and they disagree. You know, what are you
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: supposed to do?
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: Well?
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: And this is issuing too, because if the bank that
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: issued the note folded, it would become an obsolete note
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: and become absolutely worthless. Right, but you know, it takes
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: time for word to travel, right, so it could even
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: be weeks or months before someone farther away even found
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: out that the bank had closed, and they might still
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: give you know fifty percent.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: And you're worth yes, So it's time dependents. It's not
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: very sustainable. This changes, hopefully for the United States in
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty two in March when they issue currency, the
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: issue one dollar bills and they issued two dollar bills
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: and spoiler alert, two dollar bills are the hot business
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  Speaker 1: people in that time made an average of around fifteen
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  Speaker 1: dollars a month. Interesting, so if you have two dollars
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  Speaker 1: and you're paying, you're throwing down twos. That's going to
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: be my new slangy throwing.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: Down two, throwing down twos, dropping deuces.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: That means oh yeah, wait no, that means yeah, I
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: think someone beat us to that one.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's true. But here the reason that they changed
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: this game up is because they needed to finance the war, right,
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: the Civil War, that is, the Confederacy actually had a
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: little forethought and they issued their own currency, but the
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: Union tried to borrow its way through the war at
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: rapacious interest rates. So in response, the US passed these
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: three legal tender acts that resulted in the issuing of
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: I believe in the neighborhood of four hundred and fifty
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: mil in legal tender, which means what ben what is
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: legal tender, So legal tender or legal tene. We might
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: be more familiar with it through this lang name greenbacks,
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: which is way cooler and sexier than legal tender. These
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: were replacements for what were called demand notes or earlier greenbacks,
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  Speaker 2: and essentially they were a form of fiat currency. Legal
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  Speaker 2: tender means that they can be used for any debt
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: for like a public debt, perhaps the Union with face
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: due to the atrocious interest rates in the war, or
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: a private debt, except that I think they had an
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: they have one exception.
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  Speaker 1: Let's see ayes. This note is a legal tender for
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: all debts public and private, except duties on imports and
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: interest on the public debt, and as redeemable in payment
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: of all loans made to the United States. It's an
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  Speaker 1: iou Oh my gosh.
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  Speaker 2: Now I thought fiat currency meant that it was backed
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: by just faith in the government.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, the fiat currency means that it's backed by the
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: institute institutional beliefs. So there were other things that will
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: come along, called silver certificate.
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  Speaker 2: That's right. And not only that, there were notes backed
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  Speaker 2: by coin. There were those silver certificates. There were Federal
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: reserve notes, and there were national banknotes.
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  Speaker 1: So you can find various places online you can find
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: a picture of earlier currencies. We should caveat our timeline
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: here because we said eighteen sixty two in March, that's
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: when we have the first wide scale printing of the
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: two dollar bills. There were other private entities like banks
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: printing things prior to that. There were also other two
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: dollars bills before then, but they were much smaller in
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: scope and distribution because by the time the US broke
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: with England, or by the time excuse me, the American
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: colonies at that point broke with England, they had been
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: putting out paper currency for nearly a century, but they
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: didn't like continental currency existed. But they still hadn't gotten
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: the formula quite right or worked out the process. And
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: you can see in the National Museum of American History
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: you can see examples of this older currency and it
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: just looks pisspoor.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: Oh dude, it looks like something you'd find in a
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: pirate wreck. Yeah, like yeah, and no, I see now too, Ben.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: I have this note that they issued forty nine thousand,
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: two dollars bills and that was for quote bills of
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: credit for the defense of America. It wasn't until almost
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: a century later, on July eleventh of eighteen sixty two,
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: the Congress decided to make that two dollars denomination part
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: of the nation's legal tender, as we discussed earlier. So
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: I think we're up to date with the two dollars bill.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: Let's talk a little bit about a rivalry. I think
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: I know where this is going.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: A little beef Yeah, two prominent founding fathers were what
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: I like to call beefed up for a long time
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: to have this rivalry. Let's do a slow build up
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: to those beefed up rivals and explore what this bill
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: actually looked like.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and also like whose faces appeared, which will lead
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: us to the question. So these bills, in all American
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: legal tender use a process that's called intaglio printing, which
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: is it's really really cool. It's like the opposite of
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: relief printing, which means that it's got these fine lines,
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: these etched, deep etchings in these plates, and the designs
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: are cut or scratched into these plates. And they can
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: be copper or zinc or aluminium or plastic or magnesium
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: or even like coated paper, and the ink is rubbed
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: into these grooves and then the paper is placed on
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: top of it, and it requires great amounts of pressure
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: to get that to take yes, and you end up
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: with this really beautiful, fine kind of embossed look.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: And I think it takes seventy two hours to do
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: each side, at least here in the modern day because
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: of the drying, right, because there's so much ink on
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: the two dollars bill if you look at either side
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: of it. The printing, which is beautiful, is very detailed. Also,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: the coolest part is if you get a chance go
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: online and watch the engravers making the plates. What a
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: weird rarefied job.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: It's pretty cool too. You see them with those what
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: do you call that a loop like a jeweler's loop
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: monocle looking thing where they're examining them to make sure
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: they're perfect. And each plate has a specific code that
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: ends up on the front and back of the note
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: and can even tell you like where it was printed.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: And the thing about the two is that it actually
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: has some of the most ornate entaglio printing of any
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: US note. And that's because the back of it has
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: a very large scene in the middle, much more elaborate
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: than some other bills that we're used to.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of people think that the back end,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: for lack of a better phrase, of the two dollars
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: bill is the signing of the Declaration of Independence. However,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: we are going to give you a gift, friends, neighbors.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Now you will be armed with a small bit of
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: trivia for your next sois AI. Let's just call it
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: truth man, Let's drop some knowledge, some truth. It's time
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: for two dollars worth of truth bombs here, folks. It
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: is not actually called the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just the Declaration of Independence. And it's a
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: painting by John Turnbull and it just depicts the presentation
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: of the signed document to the Continental Committee, of which
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: Thomas Jefferson was a member. And I don't have the
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: exact names, but some of the lesser players. I think
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: there were like forty two people pictured in this. They
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: had to do a redone version of this for the
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: bill so that they could actually fit it all into
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: that little picture hole. That's that I'm calling it. That's
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: the picture hole.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Call it the frame maker.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: They kind of cropped out some dudes that they felt
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: were superfluous and the fact that I don't know their
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: names probably speaks.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Volumes you can find and of course a list of
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: the names. It's not too far out there to say
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: many of those names would be unfamiliar to the average
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: you know US kid today. But there are so many.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: We aren't We aren't going to go through the whole list.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: That would be wait for it, ridiculous. Oh wow, Yeah,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: we got there. I see what you did. But you know,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: Ben Franklin's there, Thomas Jefferson, as you mentioned, Noel. Also,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: George Clinton is there.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: Like of Parliament Funkadelic.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Yep, he's in the back. No, no, not that George Clinton.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately he is. He is a time traveler, a funk.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: But you can see the entire list of these people.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: The reason we're bringing this up is because if you
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: look at the detail of this engraving, you can see
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: how this this separates a two dollars bill in terms
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: of sophistication from many other examples of US currency. And
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: one of the things that caught in our minds was,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you had ever heard this growing up,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: but people had told me in the past that two
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: dollar bills were bad luck.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: You had mentioned that earlier, Ben, But I had not
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: heard that. Does that mean I should stop sleeping on
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: my mattresses full of two dollars bills?
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: I you know, I don't know. I don't I don't
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: know how it works.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: Bad luck or no, they're incredibly comfortable.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Well, of course, it's a comfortable mattress and a good
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: night's sleep. The two dollars bill, like all US currency,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: is printed on very high quality paper. But it may
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: even be a mistake to call it a paper.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's actually a fine blend of seventy five percent
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: cotton and twenty five percent linen. In fact, some of
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: my hoarded two dollar bills I have sewn together into
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: a delightful sheet set. Oh that's cool. You could also
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: make a cape that would be awesome, A puncho perhaps perhaps, No, no,
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: not both. You can't wear them at the same time.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: That that would be People wouldn't take you as seriously
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: a poncho and a cape.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: People would be like that guy needs to be more
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: definitive in his decisions.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: Well, a poncho is kind of just like a cape
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: all around, a light cape, you know, yeah, exactly, Yeah,
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: that would be extreme to wear a poncho.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Do you think anybody's front capes?
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, aprons, never mind moving on it. Yeah, this stuff,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: it's got a surprising amount of cotton in it, which
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: helps with the durability. Because when we think about it,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: if you had typical printing paper and stuff was printed
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: on there, it would be easier to counterfeit, but it
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: would be much more vulnerable to wear and tear.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: And that's a whole big part of the processes they
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: used to make these bills is to make them hard
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: to duplicate. In fact, there's a whole nother step in
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: the printing process where all of those little stamps and seals,
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: those are all done in a separate, completely separate layer.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: So it's like a different set of ink. And it's
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: just you know, it's very, very difficult to successfully counterfeit.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: And did you know, Yeah, and did you know that
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: one company supplies all of the paper. It's a place
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: called the Crane Company.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: I did not know that, but it makes sense, right,
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: if you could just get it anywhere, that'd be no good,
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: But talk about a great business model too. Those guys
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: are set.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and in the film that we're talking about, the
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: documentary about the two dollars Bill. It shows this process
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: and the folks that craft and maintain these plates, they're
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: really like, you know, artisans. I mean, it really is
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: a very high precision skill to be able to work
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: with these I mean, you're, like I said, they are
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: doing a lot of it by hand, and it's very
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: intricate form of printmaking essentially.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: Right, And this process has proven to be beneficial for
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: the US, and a lot of other countries have modeled
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: some behaviors off of this. But I want to get
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: back to I don't want to get lost in the conversation.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: We lost the.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Beef, we lost the bad luck, Oh, the bad luck,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: and then because I was yeah, yeah, yeah, cool. So
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: a lot of us have heard that the two dollars
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: bill is associated with bad luck, and the question is why, because,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: as it turns out, it is not associated with any
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: specific tragic event or a murder. And yes, the forty
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: two people that are in the trumble painting or engraving
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: rather are all dead. But that's just because that's what happens.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: That's just the way of the old white dude. It
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: was not unusual, and we have to dig into a
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: little bit of speculation to find where this superstition occurred.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Superstition is the correct word. It's kind of like four
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: leaf clovers being lucky.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: So two dollars bills were tied to brothels early in
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: the twentieth century. You could use a two dollars bill
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: and it kind of continues, but you could use a
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: two dollars bill for a well where a families show.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Maybe the best way to put it as a very
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: quick experience. Oh you know what I mean, not the
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: premium treatment whatever that was. Also, two dollars used to
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: be a standard betting price point in horse races.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: That is pretty cool, man. I'm gonna go ahead and
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: drop this now. It's because it's neat and associated with
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: what you're saying. But there's a story in the modern
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: day of two dollars bills being associated with not brothels,
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: but strip clubs. I think we talked about this on
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: a previous episode that Oregon Portland in fact has the
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: highest number of strip clubs like per capita or something like.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: That, which is still so amazing. You know, I learned
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: that from my uber driver.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: When you were visiting. Yeah, and you mentioned that, and
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: that kind of blew my mind. I was not expecting it.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: But as it turns out, there's one strip club in
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: particular called Club Diablo, where the proprietor thought it would
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: be really clever to get a whole bunch of two
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: dollars bills because you can get them, oh easily.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Just get them, you can get them today.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: Get them at the bank and stain them in red
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: ink to make them look like they were bloodstained, and
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: then he would give them out as change, as kind
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: of a gimmick in his establishment. But it turns out
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: that they ended up circulating all over town and people
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: stopped taking them. Yeah, and it became an issue.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: It's like shame money.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: It's a Charlotte letters exactly. The word got back that
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: it was all as a result of this this strip
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: club impresario's little gimmick, which was meant to connect his
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: place with the vampire film from Dust Till Dawn by
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino in it, where there is
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: like a strip club, you know, populated by blood sucking
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: vampire ladies. And he actually got the law on him
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: pretty hard. The CIA was investigating him, and the FBI
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: actually came to the bar, and you know what, that
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: wasn't enough to spook him. This guy, by the way,
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: has an amazing strip clubby name of Johnny Zuckle.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: Johnny Zucklety, you got to say it with a little
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: bit of a rasp in your voice.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: Johnny Zuckle. He was not shaken. It wasn't until you know,
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: things started to escalate that he finally backed down. But
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: just wanted to drop that in there because I think
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: that's that that ties in with what you were saying.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: But let's go back back to the back, back back
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: to the beef, back to the back, back to the beef.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: Let's see who's beefed up. So we mentioned that in
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: terms of bad luck, the superstition probably originates more from
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: people's perception what the money was used for. And as
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: an old point out, that's still around a little bit today,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: but it's not associated with a tragedy. We did a
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: little bit of foreshadowing when we mentioned the people on
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: the back of the bill. But let's pay off the foreshadowing. Now,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: who are the people on the front because they change
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: over time.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: Well, remember when we were talking about those early versions
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: of currency, when all of the regions, I guess or
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: smaller areas could have their own. There were in those
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: days around one thousand completely unique two dollar bills just
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: floating around, and we mentioned what a problem that was.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: Then enter the Civil War. We now have legal tender
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: and the first two dollars bill that's officially issued has
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: Alexander Hamilton.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Alexander Hamilton.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: Alexander Hamilton, like the guy.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: From both the musical and also fun fact, a real
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: life founding father of the United States.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: Very true, he along with his nemesis. I don't know
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: that's fair. We're probably creating a bit of a false
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: narrative there. But no, no, they had issues. They definitely
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: had issues. Yeah, Hamilton and Jefferson both founding fathers. They
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: had very different ideas of what the government should be.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: Hamilton's Federalist Party wanted to centralize the government, wanted to
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: represent the interests of trade, manufacturing, you know, cosmopolitan ideas.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: Thought these were forces that would be crucial for progress
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: in this new society. Strong central government, strong central currency,
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: public debt. He didn't like radicals, didn't want him, didn't
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: trust him, and he wanted to maintain good relationships with
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: England because they would be a trading partner you know, right.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: And Hamilton's economic plan for the nation included making a bank,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: a national bank like the kind that existed in England,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: for the purpose of maintaining public credit. One of the
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: very controversial things that he proposed at the time was
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: to consolidate state's debts. And Jefferson and his faction Republicans
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: also known as the Republican Democrats at times Republican Dashed Democrats.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: That's confusing, it's a weird one.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: This faction took the position that, let's say, Virginia should
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: not be responsible for debts accrued by New York.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: So it's a very almost isolate Relationist states rights kind
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: of vibe.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Federalist anti federalists.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. And if Hamilton is the city mouse, Jefferson
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: is the country mouse. Because the Republican Party wanted to
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: mainly take care of agriculture and agrarian have an agrarian society,
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: did not trust bankers, unconcerned with manufacturing and commerce. Again,
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: like you said, Ben, all about these states rights, self
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: sufficient communities. There's a great quote where he said, I
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: am not a friend to a very energetic government. Right.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: So this is weird now because originally it is Alexander
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Hamilton on that first two dollars bill.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: And that was because, of course he got his way.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: He was the Secretary of the Treasury. He got that
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: National Bank that was established in February of seventeen ninety one,
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: and then little time goes by eighteen sixty two rolls
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: around that two that deuce comes out. We got old
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: alex Hamilton's face on the front, because, like you say,
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: he was the Secretary of the Treasury. And I guess
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: maybe you want I don't know. Do you think he
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: wanted it? Do you think he pushed for it? Do
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: you get cared? And I don't know.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Hard to say, You know, you have to wonder is
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: it awkward to bring that up in conversation to be
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: the person who says, you know, what would what would
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: be a great portrait? Guys, because we're doing portraits for
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: these for these dollars. I'm in the Secretary of the Treasury,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: So I think, like we could do an egle, but
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: we should we should probably do me. That just seems
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: very weird. And there's something Kanye west Ish about it.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: Do you know Kanye West is talking about is it
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: dragon power these days or eagle Eagle power, Eagle power,
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: it should be egal best dragon power. I think it's
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: dragon energy, dragon energy. Thank you. That's been Casey on
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: the case.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: And you may be asking yourself a question we asked
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: ourselves out off air. Are dragon energy and Tiger blood related?
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Did they play some sort of role in the public
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: as at two dollars bill that is currently lost to history?
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: But right in, if you have any ideas, you know
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: what else.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: Has lost history? Why did Jefferson swoop in and knock
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: his old nemesis Hamilton off of the bill?
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, in eighteen sixty nine, just a few years later,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Thomas Jefferson's portrait replaces Hamilton and it's used on the
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: two dollar note for the first time, and it's been
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: used ever since.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: But what I'm saying is no one I have not
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: found any sources of saying why this happened? Why did
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: Hamilton fall out of favor? Right?
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: And there's a really cool part in this documentary where
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: in one of the historians explains, when asked about all
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: these different portraits that are on various forms of currency
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: in the US, he says that the history is largely
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: unwritten and many times, the best thing historians can say
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: is just that it is ultimately up to the Secretary
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: of the Treasury to decide. So Alexander Hamilton is no
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: dies seventeen ninety five, so he certainly had no saying
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: to Thomas Jefferson, maybe our best bet is to ask
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: ourselves who the Secretary of the Treasury was in eighteen
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: sixty nine when that picture change occurs. That's Hugh McCullough
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: from Indiana, the twenty seventh secretary.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: Maybe he was beefed up with Hamilton too and just
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: wanted to, you know, give his legacy a good thrashing.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Perhaps perhaps, Oh and let me amend that same year
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: McCollough was replaced by George S. Bootwell, who also may
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: have been beefed up with Hamilton.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: Very volatile times in the Secretary of the Treasury and
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: ben like you said earlier, these bills were popular because
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: of the nature of wages and the two sort of
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: a two would be like the way we might drop
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: a hundo today, right, you know, to really throw throw
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: weight around.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: And there was also the Gold panic in eighteen sixty nine, right,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: So maybe those events, those events tied into it. So
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: we should probably do an episode on some of those
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: catastrophic financial disasters that occurred in the eighteen hundreds that
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: remain relatively obscure today. You know, I love anything with
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: panic in it. Gold panic, Satanic panic, satanic panic, panic
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: at the disco mannic panic.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: Remember that hair hair dye?
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, skate shops back in the day, back at
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: gad zooks.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: Did you ever dye your hair bright pink or red?
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: Do you ever have a you never went through a
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: phase like that.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: No.
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: Our coworker and compatriot, Holly fry Gate, brought me some
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: silver hair dye today because I have this really dope
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: silver gray streak in my hair. I characterized it as
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: being dope because I'm just a fan. It just is
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: just the right place. People think that I did it
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: on purpose, but I didn't. But Holly's like, you know,
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: you need to really take that up a notch and
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: just make it like shiny silver.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: I thought she was joking, like Rogue from the Oh wait,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: silver not white? Silver not white, So she totally like
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Roguan X men. But she presented me with a tube
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: of hair stuff. Maybe congratulations, thanks man. Yeah, and you're
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: going to drop in. You're gonna don't do it over
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: the weekend. I don't want to hurt Holly's feelings. Does
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: it wash out or is it a permanent one?
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: It looks permanent. It's a commitment. It's a real commitment.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: Maybe try some some of that wash out dive first,
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: ce how you feel, get some of the theater stuff
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: that you just sprained.
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: I was just sort of like, Holly, I don't think
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: I'm not lacking. I'm good with this. She's like, no,
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: it can be better. You can take it up a notch.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: But anyway, we digress. Best of intentions always, No, Holly's
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: the best, so yes, Panics aside, and motivations somewhat unknown
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: or murky. The fact remains that Thomas Jefferson replaced Alexander
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Hamilton on the two dollars bill in eighteen sixty nine,
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: and the fact also remains that over time, a good
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: bit of time, the two sort of fell out of favor.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, And it had lower printing numbers starting in
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: about the nineteen fifties, and this is what led to
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: for a time the two dollars bill becoming the rarest
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: current denomination of US currency, and people started to hoard
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: two dollar bills. But as a result this decreased the
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: circulation even more.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: It's right. It's a really great mental article about the
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: curious case of the two dollars bill, and they talk
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: about the idea of the two dollar bill sort of
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: being surrounded by circular logic, one of those notions being
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: that no one uses them because no one uses.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Them, right, Yeah, So they're not printed because people are
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: disinclined to use them. But people are disinclined to use
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: them because they're not printed very often, right, And there's
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: always something worth commenting on there. Many people find them
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: to be remarkable in some way or memorable, which is
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: why at modern day gentlemen's club, gentlemen's Parlow, gentlemen's lobby,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: I'm just thinking of different.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: Words for buildings, it's a lounge.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: There we go, there we go. In this article by
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Hannah Keyser, we do that this logic works against at
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: least the prevalence of the two dollars bill, even if
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: it does help its popularity. And this eventually leads to
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: the Federal Mint just throwing up their hands and saying
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: no more. Right.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It was in nineteen sixty six that they decided
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: to discontinue this particular denomination of currency. So it stayed
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: entirely out of production, out of print for ten years.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and the Economic Review said that they were pulling
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: this because people weren't using it, you know why, Just
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: people were hoarding them in their houses.
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: It's true. But then one faithful day, April thirteenth, the
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: spring day of nineteen and seventy six, oh, the bi centennial.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: That's right, the two dollars bill was issued once again
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: for the first time in a decade, and it was
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: announced by President Nixon.
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: Nick the two dollars barrels very weird. Well what is
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: that we get there? It was crazy Nixon. Uh, wrestler Nixon.
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: He's kind of tough to say. Two dollars, two dollars roll.
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: I see you see really, you've got the cadence, You've
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: got the tone more.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: I think we've got you and I have some practice
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: ahead of us.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: I think if we combined our impressions, we'd be pretty
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: close to the mark. But you've got the bark down.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Sort of vultron the Nixon. You've got yourself off.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: I've got the bark and the quaver down.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: So so we, uh, we have some a montage ahead
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: of us. You and I off air when we when
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: we get Nixon up.
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're gonna have a Nixon off Yeah, we.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: Heard your emails. At first we thought you were joking.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: But I don't think people are joking nol. I think
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: they want us to do a full to go full Nixon.
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: Well, I think if we're going to do that, then
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: it probably has to be a bonus episode just for
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: the super fans. Yes, we don't want to alienate out there.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: I was thinking about that someone when someone tunes in
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: for the first time and they're they're like, who are
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: these card?
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: Even the sound effect has to be in a Nixon voice.
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: Everything must be Nixon.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: We could get the Nixon filter we've been talking about
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: so much on our vision board. So Nixon announces this
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: and there's a little bit of finger wagging from a
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: New York Times article about the reintroduction where they say.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: Ooh, dish it man, I don't know what you're talking about.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: I didn't read this one.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: Where they say public reluctance to accept and use the
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: two dollars bill was the principal cause of its discontinuance
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: nine years ago, and the main reason for that reluctance
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: was the relative scarcity of the note in circulation. So
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: to me, that comes off like the tone of it is, okay, kids,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: America do better this time. You can have it back,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: but remember what happened? Like they're like you're giving a
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: kid a toy back.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: Here's the thing, though, America did not play nice, and
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: there was a functional reason beyond just a delightful little
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: bisentennial gimmick for releasing this. They needed there was a
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: gas shortage, I believe, and they needed to release a
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: certain value amount of currency, but not they didn't want
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: to print as many ones, so they were able to
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: print like half as many two's. And I'm no economist,
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: but I guess that's what you do. Yeah, So what
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: is this going to accomplish? Ben, is my question to you.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: Well, it's going to give you more bang for your
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: buck about twice as much YEP, in terms of printing
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: cost exactly twice as much. Exactly twice as much. Also
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: not an economist, we should note, but this, this gives
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: an injection of cash into an economy that is in
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: dire need.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: It's true, and it did create what didn't create, It
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: just was scarce because it hadn't been in circulation for
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: ten years. So you know, I guess they I don't
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: know how they introduced currency. They must do it a
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: little at a time, obviously, you know, over a large area.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: I think it's a T shirt cannon.
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: Okay, that'd be cool. I think it's man. I'd mean
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: it was sort of like Joker in Batman with the trust,
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: you know, and he's got the gas and the balloons
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: and all that. That'd be cool.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: That's probably the most efficient way to do it. Again,
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: but by a centennial parade. Yeah again, we're not economist,
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: but we would be great at this parade. Yeah, it's
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: and now though you're right, people didn't play nice because
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: they started to see this as as much of a
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: collectible as it was a functional piece of currency exactly.
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: So people didn't spend it.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: No, they like went to the post office and got
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: a stamp to show the date that they got it.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: In, like a notary type stamp, like a.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Postage stamp and a rubber cancelation stamp up, and it
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: made it seem like a keepsake.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: Interesting see it sort of to me sounds like when
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: they released those fancy commemorative coins and a lot of
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, I wonder if that creates a circulation problem
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: with quarters. Probably not.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: I don't know. They made a bunch of they made a.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: Bunch of quarters. Yeah, that's true, but again doesn't quite
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: accomplish what they were after. But they don't pull it. Again.
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: There's still two dollar bills in circulation. I don't think
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: they print them particularly often. They certainly print them less
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: often than you know, the standard denominations they were used to.
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: I don't have an exact figure on that.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: I believe again from the excellent documentary that we checked
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: out by John Bernardo, I believe that one of the
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: experts at the Federal Mint says that since nineteen fifty six,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: there have only been nine printings of the two. They're
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: so cool about it, they don't. They don't call it
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: a two dollars bill. They call it the two, the two,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: which makes it sound so classy.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: I learned a new word. What is it too? I
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: think you probably know this one. But numismatics, Ah, yes, yes, yes,
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: or a new mismatist, a collector and enthusiast of currency
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: and coins. It's true, and they.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: Have an awesome They have an awesome convention in Florida
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: with an acronym that I don't have to ask. I
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: already know you and I both love it. It is
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: the Florida United New Mismatists Convention.
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: Or fun maybe sounds like a barrel of laughs to me.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: Oh, I hope they are as proud of that as
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: I am.
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: Oh Man, Yeah, I know, it's good. You should be
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: proud and they should be proud that you're so proud
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: of them. But here's the thing. There's a lot of
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: misconceptions even today about the two dollars bill. People still
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: think they're scarce. And while it may be scarce compared
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: to other denominations, there are over one billion two dollars
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: bills in circulation today.
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: Right right, You can, as as we mentioned earlier, you
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: can go to a bank and specifically request a large
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: amount of two dollar bills, and it turns out that
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: you probably wouldn't be the first person to do that
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: because two dollar bills in recent years, especially post you know,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: the reintroduction of the bill, they have become signs of protest. Right,
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: not just this is this is different from the gentleman's
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: lounge throwing red paint.
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: On stuff as more of a marketing ploy.
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: I guess, right, yeah, I agree, But you and I
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: and our researcher Christopher Hasiotis found some really cool examples
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: of two dollar bills being used as a protest.
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: Right. Did you hear the one from the mid eighties
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: around an event called Black Dollar Days?
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: Black Dollar Days, No school me late, lay it on me.
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: Well, the NAACP had this event that they dubbed Black
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: Dollar Days that was from September second through the ninth
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: of nineteen eighty five, where in order to show the
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: spending power, the massive spending power. Oh yes, yes, in
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: American community.
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: I remember what they did. They urged their black consumers
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: in twenty nine cities across the country to only spend
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: two dollar bills and one dollar Susan b Anthony coins
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: to demonstrate how much economic heft they had, with Raymond
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: Johnson Junior, the president of the NAACP's LA chapter, saying
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: that black spent well over one hundred billion on goods
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: and services from non minority firms in nineteen eighty.
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: Four, and yet the corporations purchased less than one percent
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: of that amount from black vendors. He's saying, we're not
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: asking for anything except our fair share. So in using
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: those two dollar bills in those Susan Bees. They collected
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: someone in the neighborhood of five million dollars in purchases
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: in that that that very short span of time.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: And that's that's a noble one.
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: That's something I think everybody can really get behind because
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: that's a way to speak truth to power, you know,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: vote with your vote with your purchasing ability. As heartless
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: as it sounds, that makes a difference to corporations. They're
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: not the only people protesting either. We found a case
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: where nudist did something very similar.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: I did not see this one, Ben, Please.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: So in Land of Lakes, Florida, they make the butter
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: I you know it should be, but I think they
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: just didn't check the list of cities that already existed
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: when they named it landa Lakes.
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: Do the newdists cover their bodies in butter? Uh? You
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: know what?
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: Statistically, probably at least one of them has.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: It's like you can use it as like a sun
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: tanning solution.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: I thought that was dangerous.
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: Whatever, man, you just live your life. Tell me about
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: the butter time.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: We're here for a good time, not a long time, right. Yeah,
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: So these nudists in Landa Lakes, Florida. Central Florida launched
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: a campaign where they decided to all so buy everything
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: with two dollars bills to show the local merchants how
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: much of an impact they make.
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: And this was nudists in general. This specific community is
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: the newdist dollar.
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was an idea created or proposed by Chuck Foster,
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: who runs the Caliente Resort. I thought you'd like that name.
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: That sounds spicy. And you know, in a stunning turn
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: of events, I feel like we're going from most culturally
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: valuable to leases. Maybe well, I don't know, I would
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: maybe flip yours with with the one I'm about to
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: talk about. Maybe tell me what you think, all right. Yeah,
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: there's a local organization in Alger County in Michigan that
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: decided to mount a statewide effort to show their support
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: of medical cannabis and push for a bigger, more widespread
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: adoption of legalization in the state. And that was back
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: in two thousand and eight. And if I'm correct me,
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: if I'm wrong, is Michigan gone legal?
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: So many places, it seems, are changing that quickly. I
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: think it's up for it's up for political debate. Marijuana
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: legalization maybe on their November ballot.
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: You know what, the but they do have medical cannabis, Okay,
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: that is on the books in two thousand and eight.
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: This is not on the books. This is what they
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: were pushing for. Can't necessarily credit the two dollars scheme
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: for making that happen, but it certainly did a good
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: job of showing lawmakers. Something that's very important with these
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: cases often is that people spend money. People who nudists
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: spend money. Sure, African Americans spend money. Sure, we'd had
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: to spend money.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: And everybody spends money, and everybody should be treated fairly.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: We saw another example where gay rights advocates took the
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: same approach using two dollars bills. And this was a
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: reaction to the Proposition eight initiative in California.
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: Remember that a rough one.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And so they did some stuff that I
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: thought was really cool. There were people protesting by calling
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: in gay quote unquote gay to work. Sure, and they
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: did the same thing as the N DOUBLEACP did with
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: two dollars bills, and they were transparent in citing the
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: N double ACP's earlier work.
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: Oh that's cool. Credit where credit is due. Yeah, And
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: this article from AOL by Jason Cochrane titled gay rights
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: advocates ponder best way to flex their economic power. They
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: decided that this two dollars bill method, which, if I
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: wasn't clear, that's also what the what the pot people
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: did was decided they would spend only two dollars bills
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: to show their economic impact directly to the community. Because
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: you know shopkeepers and banks, and you count the two
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: dollar bills that you got, you can see where the
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: impact is coming from, and you know who spent those.
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: But with the whole calling in gay to work thing,
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: a lot of members of the community didn't think that
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: was a very focused effort, and it seem kind of
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: counterproductive and it didn't really hit the way they wanted to,
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: which was to show their actual spending power, which has
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: been estimated in America that the gay community contributes something
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: like seven hundred billion dollars to the economy.
• 45:16
  Speaker 4: Wow.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: And I believe this also happened in two thousand and eight,
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: didn't it. It's the same same year as the Michigan protest. Right,
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: you are, my friend, what a time were What were
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: we doing? I don't think it even had me two
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: dollar bills.
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: In a way, Well, I still had my mattresses. Yeah,
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: I was probably napping on him at the time, But
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: I count those more as furniture for you then, like
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: maybe emergency currency, maybe, but it better be a real emergency.
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: I like to think of it more as immersion currency,
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: because I just I just roll around in and man.
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels good. And also, we want to be
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: clear that despite dirty mattress jokes, Noel does wash his currency.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: I won't want to scare anybody by letting you know
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: just how many really grows statistics are out there about paper.
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: Money saying I launder my money.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: I'm saying you literally launder your money in the best
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: possible way.
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: I will say this when I'm not sleeping on my
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: stack of two dollars bill filled mattresses. I sleep with
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: Casper Baby.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: I knew you were gonna do it. Yes, Casper mattresses,
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: objectively great mattresses, very nice. So there's something that just
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: occurred to me as we were talking about this protest.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: One of the reasons that two dollars bills might also
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: be a great way of showing your community or your
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: group's economic weight is because there's no drawer space for
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: two dollars bill in the typical cash register.
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: Forgot that point entirely, Ben, It's very true. It's another
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: reason that it's probably never taken off. It's clearly never
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: been fully embraced by the economic community.
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: By big cash register big registers.
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and here's the thing to Ben. Even today, you'll
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: hear lots of stories about people just being very confused
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: about this, this currency, this this denomination. In fact, there's
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: a story about a guy who, in his own kind
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: of little protest, a little more of a mini protest,
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: best Buy apparently refused to install his son's car stereo
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: for the gradis price they had promised him. Yeah, and
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: they said, okay, no, actually you have to pay for
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: We're gonna call the cops if you don't come in.
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: This guy's name was Mike Boilesta, and this was supported
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: by the Baltimore son. The fifty seven year old Mike
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: Bilesta found himself in lock up. He actually was handcuffed
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: to a poll for three hours after he decided to
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: give best Buy the old middle fingy and pay with
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: all twos.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: Because the person he tried to pay first didn't recognize this.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: She went to get the manager. The manager said these
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: are counterfeit I've already called the police, and I believe
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: he said the cop was He throws in that the
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: cop was young as well.
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: Sure, yeah, he was young, and they kept him handcuffed
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: to this pole until they can get the damn Secret
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: Service to show up. Can you imagine if you were
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: that Secret Service agent, how annoyed you would be to
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: be called out to a Best Buy? It's crazy. I
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: think a lot of people they're probably in the lock
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: up of the time, but you can get my name.
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: I think that a lot of people aren't aware that
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: the Secret Service is the organization that supervises counterfeiting.
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: It's true because under federal law, anyone, anyone who intentionally
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: uses counterfeit money can get up to twenty years in
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: the clink and is also subject to a fine, a
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: steep fine, I imagine.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: Right, I would imagine so. And this has always been
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: a fascinating thing to us, the idea that the Secret Service,
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: of all groups, has that specific task, because one would
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: reasonably assume it would be the FBI or well, they
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: can get involved too. They can't. They can get involved too,
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: but specifically with counterfeiting. So that's why why in our
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: earlier examples the FBI got called. That's right, But in
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: this example, the Secret Service, I, you know what we
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: should We should write to some Secret Service folks, see
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: if we can, we can talk to them about this.
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: When I get in that system, man, I don't want
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: to be on a list for being a letter writer,
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: being some kind of agitator.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: Being some kind of anachronistic ludite. Now uses a pen.
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: See that's exactly what happened to Denise O'Neil, an eighth
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: grader at THEE. CHRISTA. Mccauliffe Middle School outside of Houston.
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: She attempted to pay for her school lunch with a
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: two dollars bill. By the way, we haven't talked about
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: how two dollars bills favorites of grandparents the world over.
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, is that true?
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: We have We'll give it. Give you a two dollars
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: bill in your birthday card. You know. They think it's
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: they think it's cute. Well that's sweet, yeah, But anyway,
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: this was not cute because her grandmama gave her this
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: two dollar bill, and her grandmother's name was Sharon K. Joseph,
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: and the cafeteria workers at the school did not believe
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: that it was real. They said they had never seen
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: two dollars bill in their life. And she was sent
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: to something called the police office because this particular school,
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: this particular school district in Houston outside of Houston, Fort
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: Bend Independent School District has its own.
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: Police force that's like a step above the police store
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: the Fort.
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: Bend isd And apparently the officer told her that she
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: was going to be in big trouble for using this bill,
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: which they believed to be counterfeit. Wow.
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: So still a real stigma surrounding the two the deuce.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: It is the tom the tom. You're right, it is
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: still in circulation. It is not illegal to use it.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: It's not counterfeit. And when you think about it, most counterfeiters,
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: who would be professional level counterfeiters, are not going to
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: mess with a small denomination. They want fifties, hundreds.
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: Stuff like that. They're not gonna mess with one that's
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: gonna cause so many people to make a face.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: Right, you want something that slides in unnoticed. There's something
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: else I found that was pretty interesting. If you think
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: people in the US are obsessed with the two dollars bill,
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: then who boy are you in for an adventure in Ecuador.
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: According to author Nina Porzuki, who wrote Wire Ecuadorians obsessed
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: with the two dollars bill for pri In Ecuador, this
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: bill is even more rare, and people believe that it
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: is good luck. It is some of the best good luck.
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: It functions like a four leaf clover. Ecuador's had the
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: US dollars official currency since two thousand and The problem
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: that they run into is a bank in Ecuador will
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: order money from the federal reserve here in the States
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: if they need five tens, fifties and two dollar bills
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: are not a priority, so they're even less frequently found
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: there than they are here, and that feedback loop happens again.
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: People save them because they think they're good luck.
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: But we also have these sort of two dollars bill
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: freedom fighters, don't we People like Heather McCabe who runs
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: a block called Too Buckaroo, and her whole life's mission
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: is to dump two dollars bills back into circulation and
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: see people's reactions when she tries to spend them. There's
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: an article about ms McCabe in the New York Times,
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: and she was also in that documentary that we talked about,
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: but this one is called two dollar bill is oddity,
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: but some love the tender. It describes Heather McCabe as
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: being on a one woman mission to revitalize the quirky
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: greenback through deliberate casual use. It also cites this guy,
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: Matthew Zachlad, who pours apparently close to seven thousand notes
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: into circulation each year, and McCabe apparently has been turned
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: away from businesses, told to pay with something else in
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: different bars, and as constantly being asked by people that
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: she encounters, can I buy this wallet full of two
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: dollar bills that you have because they still think that it's.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: Kooky and rare and they have no idea that you
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: can go down to the Fun Convention again that's an
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: acronym and buy it. Sound amazing the fun I want
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: to go to the Fun Convention and buy a wallet
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: made out of two dollar bills. I think it was
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: forty bucks. Okay, But there are other neat facts that
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: we discovered about the two dollar bill. It's often used
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: as a tracer by like mom and pop stores to
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: track robberies. They keep the two dollar bill at the
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: bottom of the drawer. They write the serial number down
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: somewhere else, and then they just wait. Two dollar bills
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: used to be handed out at Monticello, former home of
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: President Jefferson's.
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: Right, because he got all the glory after they kicked
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: old Hammy off.
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: You have no control who lives, who dies, who tells
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: your two dollars story. Steve Wozniak buys two dollar bills
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: by the sheet from the Treasury Department and makes his
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: own little coupon book essentially out of them so he
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: can rip them out.
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: Really, yeah, it's so weird. Is it just for grandpa purposes?
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: Does he just want to be able to rip one
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: out to give to his I don't know.
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: Maybe he hates leafing through things.
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: It's very interesting. But no.
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: You know, I've got to tell you I had a
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: bunch of stuff on another weird currency. But maybe we
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: should save that for a different episode, because this rabbit
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: hole is going deep, deep, deep, A.
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: Lot deeper than I thought it would, my friend.
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot deeper we thought it would. Do you
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: have a two dollar bill at your home currently?
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: I do not.
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: I have one. Wait, no, no, that's not true. I
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: have three. Oh yeah, your flush Well I planted them?
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: What get it?
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: Uh?
• 54:31
  Speaker 4: No?
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: I have three. I think they actually, now I think
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: about it, I think they did come from an older relative,
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: but they're I think they might be pre seventy six.
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: I can't remember. But be that as it may. We'd
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: like to hear your two dollars bill stories because one
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: thing McCabe did in her blog is she started asking
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: people to tell her a story about the two dollar bill,
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: and she got some very interesting responses.
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: It's a really cool blog. The one I'm looking at
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: right now isn't a personal story as much as it
• 54:59
  Speaker 2: is news story. The headline is two dollars bill leads
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: to heroin bust. In New Jersey, when a driver was
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: pulled over for tossing a lit cigarette out of a
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: car window, the police officer reported seeing a rolled up
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: two dollars bill with white residue on it. The driver
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: and passenger were asked to step out of the vehicle.
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: Prior to doing so, the driver made an attempt to
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: hide the bill. According to the police, officer, later located
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: the bill in a cigarette pack containing heroin. But what
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: happened to the two dollar bill?
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: Dun dung. Yeah, So again, we want to hear your
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: stories or personal experiences, your memories. Did you grow up
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: being told that a two dollars bill was good luck
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: or bad luck? If so, why do you think that
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: the bill should continue? Because one thing I really oh,
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: one thing I really wish we could have hit in
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: this episode was the debate over whether or not to
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: abolish the penny.
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: I know you have very strong feelings about that, largely
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: because you probably don't like touching pennies. Right. Yeah, And
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: we didn't even touch on the fact that Georgia Tech
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: our hometown NERD football team. Yeah, you ever wondered about that?
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: I went there, You went there? Yeah, you weren't on
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: the football team though, No, not that I recall. So
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: do they just let people go there just to be
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: on the football team or is the football team just
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: like full of genius engineers and diplomats?
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: From what I remember, they have a pretty high bar academically.
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: Wow, Okay, I'm sorry. I don't mean to be dismissive.
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: I don't understand how this stuff was, But yeah, they
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: have a rivalry with Clemson and they actually refuse to
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: play each other out of protests, and the alumni stamped
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: two dollar bills with the Clemson Tiger pause and used
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: them around Atlanta to illustrate the money that the Tiger
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: fans were spending at these events. So once again the
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: two dollars bill rears its quirky head.
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: And perhaps you can be part of a two dollars
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: bill protest movement in the future. Have you been part
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: of one? Yeah? And if you're planning one, what are
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: you protesting? We might just join you. Let us know
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: you can write to us directly. We are ridiculous at
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: HowStuffWorks dot Com. As always a massive thanks to Casey
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: Peg and Alex Williams who composed.
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: Our track, and not to mention a plus ace number
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: one researcher Christopher Hasiotis for holding our hands down this
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: rabbit hole, deep dive, shallow dive, the medium dive.
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: I thought it was pretty good dive. You know, I
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: rate us more on form, so I thought it was
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: a good form. I made a tiny splash, right, Oh man,
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: how come the one does a cannonball at the Olympics.
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: I was wondering that when I was a kid. But
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: cannonball's aside. Stay tuned for our next episode, when we
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: will ask how related are us presidents in terms of familial.
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: Oh I was going to say they're presidents. They're all
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: president A presidents.
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: You know you can try, but name one US president.
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: Who was not president? All right, that's tough. It's a
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: tough one, nigh impossible. But no, I see where you're
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: going with this, Ben, and that does sound like a
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: good time.
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: So stay tuned right to us. We always love to
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: hear from you. You can also join our community on
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: Facebook we are Ridiculous Historians. That's where you can see Nolan,
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: Casey and I dropping by with the odd childhood photo
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: maybe soon, karaoke clips, and most importantly, hearing your suggestions.
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: For future topics. That sounds good to me, my friend.
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: Casey, can we go out on a cash register ring.
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.