3rd
they don’t print them like they used to
I’ve pulled these two oldies out of my change in the past few months so it was finally time to write about them:
First, the two dollar bill has always been one of my favorite notes because of its small printing quantity. I find them fun to pick up at the bank because of their novelty. Buying something with one often leads to strange facial expressions and confused hands as it nears the register. Where do you put this bill anyways? There isn’t a slot for it. I’ve ushered similar responses by using half-dollars too.
Second: It wasn’t all that long ago that the heads on greenbacks grew, and then their ink turned pretty colors in an effort to modernize the currency against counterfeiting but already its strange to see the old flavor around it almost looks fake. It caught me off guard when I received it as change in a cafe. I think I’ll hold on to this one with my old 5 and 20 and maybe it will be worth something someday (or at least a cool present for my children/grandchildren.)
Also: I’ve always been fascinated with large banknotes. Few people know that banknotes of 10000, 5000, 1000, 500 were minted in small quantities in 1929 and 100,000 notes in 1934. Today these bills are collector’s items and unusually rare. A quick check on eBay looks like you can find a mint 500 or 1000 bill for a little less than 200% face value, while the 5000 and 10000 may be 10X or more. I don’t know if it would ever be a good investment, but it would be fun to own one for the heck of it.
