Return of the $2 Bill Conspiracy

[kevin_standlee]

I like using $2 bills, especially at conventions. Actually, I think the USA should follow Canada and stop printing $1 bills, embrace the $1 coin, and use the $2 bill. (Yes, I know Canada dropped the $2 bill as well; one step at at time.) One of the reasons I use them at conventions is as an attempt to show that we're putting money into the hotel in a noticeable way. I use them primarily for tips, so as to spread it around.

But getting $2 bills can be a hassle sometimes. Yesterday, I went to the branch near my office and inquired about them. the teller said there were two bundles of $200 each in the vault if I'd like to buy an entire bundle. I agreed, and a few minutes later I was handed a brand new bundle of one hundred $2 bills.

This is a bit much, even for me, and even though Lisa will want some of them. If anyone wants to buy some of them off of me, particularly if you're planning to use them for Westercon expenses at-con, see me at BASFA or at the con and we'll deal.

Comments

[johno.livejournal.com]

It's a long established way of informing a area that group is moving $$ into their coffers.

I'll gladly trade you a more common $20 or two, for 10 or 20 $2 bills.



When C & I were cleaning out her Aunt's house after, Aunt Ginny had passed away. We found a large jar of silver dollars and half-dollars. Doing a quick check, we found they were nothing special. So C & her cousin split the coins.

On the way home, we found we were cash poor at a restaurant. So we paid with the coins. The young clerk clearly didn't believe us that they real money and went in back ask. All we clearly heard "It still spends. Accept it!"

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Lisa has a fantasy of being wealthy enough to buy an American Gold Eagle coin (face value $50; actual value around $600 depending on the price of gold) and try spending it to see if the merchant will take it. Of course, if anyone had ever tried to pass me a $20 gold piece when I worked in retail, my reaction would have been to have accepted it before the customer changed his mind, then change it back out of the till into my own pocket. What Lisa wants to know by such an experiment is how intelligent the person behind the counter is.

(The real trick would be to get a much older pre-1930s gold eagle or double eagle, but those were demonetized in 1934, and I don't know if they were ever technically reinstated. You'd still be a fool to not accept it at face value, but you'd at least be a law-abiding fool.)