If you’re familiar with the Taco Bell $2 bill legend you’ll get the gist of this experiment. Basically a manager at Taco Bell refused to accept a customer’s $2 bill because he thought they didn’t even exist. There are bunch of other cases where people encountered difficulties with using the $2 bill and can be found on the currency recognition glitches page at Snopes.
There was a kid back in high school who didn’t believe the $2 bill existed so it’s totally believable that there are people out there would refuse to accept it. One of the big myths about the $2 bill is that it is a rare bill and therefore when people receive them they don’t spend them and therefore the bills don’t circulate as they should.
If you’re interested in learning more, read about the United States two-dollar bill on Wikipedia.
I got thinking about the $2 bill again because in Singapore they don’t generally use dollar bills but dollar coins. Having done a couple transactions I’ve noticed that the $2 bill can improve efficiency of transactions. This is particularly true since inflation has decreased the buying power of what $1 can buy in the US these days.
Basically my experiment is to go out and spend $2 bills at various places and see if I encounter any difficulties. I went to the bank and they got somebills for the experiment. $2 bills. They come in green straps of $200 (100 bills). The teller told me they have plenty but they keep them in the vault and I just had a short wait while she retrieved them.
There has been stories of people being arrested for using $2 bills (and later released) when the clerks suspect them of being counterfeit. I doubt my experiment will be that exciting and I highly doubt I’ll have any interesting encounters. The $2 bills are perfect for the $1 beer nights at one of the local bars as I generally tip $1 for the $1 beer.
I’ll post a follow up on the results of my experiment when I get around to spending the bills.
Great to hear you doing this…I did something similar…last time I got a 100 dollar bill I took it to the bank and got 50 2 dollar bills. I spent them everywhere, and other than a few odd looks, I had no problems.