Comments on: US Banknote Production Slows in May

By: Munzen

Munzen — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 15:20:34 +0000

Vachon –
That’s one heck of a good idea! It’s a shame every single design and denomination seems to have acquired lobbies that fight tooth & nail for the status quo, There’s so many other options that would make our money better but they go to DC to die.

Seth –
I agree with you completely about getting a different perspective from travel. I’m a 100% born and bred American but that doesn’t make me feel we’ve got any monopoly on good ideas. We all need to learn from each other!

FWIW I’ve heard rumors Canada is looking how difficult it would be to switch to a New Zealand-style system with true decimal denominations of 10¢ / 20¢ / 50¢ / $1 and $2. That could become interesting….

By: Vachon

Vachon — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 15:00:43 +0000

As for eliminating the $1 bill and letting the $2 bill finally get its day, I’ve proposed, since no one in Congress wants to propose eliminating Washington from our currency line-up (never mind that he’s on the quarter…a complement of this argument exists when discussing eliminating the cent), that the $2 bill be redesigned with the large off-center portraits used since the 1996 series, but replace Jefferson with Washington. And since that would likely bring out the Jefferson lobby, I additional propose the reverse of this redesigned $2 bill replace the Declaration of Independence signing vignette with that of Mount Rushmore with a Jefferson-prominent design (like that of the 2013 quarter).

Could work…

By: Seth Riesling

Seth Riesling — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 06:03:37 +0000

Munzen –

You sure are right. Canada did it right in all ways with their coinage & banknotes, including getting rid of their 1-cent coin in 2012 & are now reaping the savings benefits. I wish our Congress would notice & act, but the special interest lobby (zinc & paper) is too entrenched in Washington! I lived a 3-hour drive from Windsor, Ontario for three years after college & loved crossing that international bridge once a month into a different world for shopping & some of the best Asian food outside of Asia! And Tim Horton’s had some great coffee too & a great place to meet people. This was in the late 1980s & I always carried a few crisp $2 notes & a silver round in my glove compartment on those Saturday trips to tip the waitresses & waiters. They loved the $2 notes & asked which state I was from & when I told them Texas they had tons of questions (cowboys? cowboy hats? Oil?) I love the USA greatly, but having lived in Japan & Germany for 3 years each, I have a more critical eye than most when it comes to change of any sort I guess.

-NumisDudeTX

By: Munzen

Munzen — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 03:28:50 +0000

Seth –

Thanks much for the thumbs-up. And yes, I get a couple of questions a month along the lines of “why were $2 bills discontinued?” or “when were they withdrawn?”

I’m basing my ideas for our Two on Canada’s experiences with the Loonie and Toonie. Their government set a cutover date and stuck to it despite a lot of early grumbling. Admittedly losing the Voyageur dies gave the new denomination loads of extra publicity, but once the coins were readily available most negativity disappeared.

As for the Twoonie, I can only speak about what I saw while visiting Toronto at the time it was released a few years after the Loonie. Media coverage was widely positive, plus I heard people in stores asking whether they could get any of the new coins in change.

Of course Canada’s not the US. They’re more polite, they have a parliament instead of a Congress, they use SI units, and most important they have Tim Horton’s…..

By: Seth Riesling

Seth Riesling — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 19:56:14 +0000

Munzen –

I agree that the $2 FRN should be the workhorse of the banknotes issued if they would just stop printing the low value $1 notes. I honestly think most Americans don’t realize the $2 notes are still being printed.

-NumisDudeTX

By: Munzen

Munzen — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 16:26:33 +0000

Ditto here, I have a lot of trouble getting them from local banks too. One thought is that even though current production is up, it’s not yet at “saturation”. The few twos I’ve picked up and spent were immediately pulled from circulation by cashiers who treat them as keepsakes, and/or who are convinced they’re rare.

I don’t understand why $2 bills are conspicuously absent from almost every discussion about ending $1 bill production. My take would be to redesign the two and crank up printing to say 1/3 the current level of $1 bill production while simultaneously getting rid of the buck. That would short-circuit complaints about “getting four $1 coins in change” while still eliminating around a third of the BEP’s load.

Maybe after people realize that eliminating paper dollars won’t end civilization as we know it, the $2 bill could also be replaced by a coin (just like every other major country has already done!)

By: Jim

Jim — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 15:39:18 +0000

I saw a lot of $2 note issued. But can not get any new one
from the banks. I wonder why?.

By: Seth Riesling

Seth Riesling — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 23:28:51 +0000

Where do all of those $2 FRNs wind up? Lol. It has been 40 years since the current $2 design was issued on April 13, 1976. I stood in line with my father at his military credit union to get 50 of them & then at the post office to buy the 50 states stamps to lick & put on each of them & get them postmarked on first day of issue. I worked hard that day! & he swears I get them when he is gone. I will frame them in double-sided glass frame for display.

-NumisDudeTX