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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;komokwa, post: 221473, member: 301&quot;]“The reason they’re perceived as rare is because everyone puts them in the drawer and doesn’t use them,” Bennardo says. “That feeds the perception of rarity. They’re rare, you put them in your drawer, the cycle repeats.”</p><p><br /></p><p>This sort of defeats the purpose for their existence. The whole point of monetary systems is to allow for the exchange of goods and services to be easily accomplished. Rather than lugging around sacks of gold coinage like Scrooge McDuck or, more likely, spending hours trying to determine just how many (x) your skills are worth, the economy can chug along at a reasonable pace when everyone gets on the paper money system. If money is to have value, it must circulate.</p><p><br /></p><p>But: “There is not much demand for this bill in circulation,” says Lydia Washington, the public affairs specialist for the U.S. Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing. “The key for the successful circulation of the $2 note is for retailers to use them just like any other denomination in their daily operations.”</p><p><br /></p><p>However, they don’t. If someone gets their hands on a $2 note and spends it at the bar, the bartender will often “buy” it off the bar with two $1s of their own, take it home, stick it in the bottom of a drawer or back of a wallet, and just let it rot. It’s taken out of circulation by individual users due to the perception that it’s more valuable — or, will be more valuable — than the $2 listed on the bill. And yet, clearly, this isn’t the reality. Take a $2 bill to a collector and see how much they offer in return.</p><p><br /></p><p>The bill does continue to have a weird, vibrant life in certain subcultures: Strip clubs often make change with $2 bills in order to allow their dancers to receive better tips. Many horse-racing tracks have a minimum bet of $2, so the bills come in handy there. In Michigan, supporters of marijuana legislation have used $2 bills as a silent way to express how much “green” <a href="http://www.freep.com/article/20130710/NEWS06/307090122/michigan-medical-marijuana-legalization-two-dollar-bill-campaign" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.freep.com/article/20130710/NEWS06/307090122/michigan-medical-marijuana-legalization-two-dollar-bill-campaign" rel="nofollow">the green weed will boost the economy</a>. The bills are also used as a calling card of sorts for gun owners. “[They] use them as a symbol of the Second Amendment,” Bennardo says. “To start a conversation about their right to open carry.”</p><p><br /></p><p>Despite the fact that the actual value of the $2 bill is exactly two dollars and zero cents as far as the U.S. Treasury is concerned, it is worth more. It’s good luck, a collectible, a novelty. It’s bad luck, useless, an obvious forgery. It’s something different to everyone, but it’s something more valuable than two $1 bills.</p><p><br /></p><p>“It’s the only U.S. bill in circulation that, to me, seems worth more than its face value,” McCabe says. “It’s so weird, so funny, why this one bill … I don’t have an answer. Everyone has a different anecdote. It’s all emotion-based.”[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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