This country is unusual in its refusal to use a $2 denomination in ordinary commerce. According to a number of sources I’ve read, it started back in the days when $2 was both a common bet at race tracks and, more significantly, the going rate for certain, uh, services at brothels (nothing like those pre-inflation days!). “Respectable” people tended to shun the denomination, fearing that someone might assume they’d gotten the bills at one of those dubious venues.

By the 1950s twos were pretty uncommon which led to the same circular problem that keeps halves from general use. People assumed either that the bills were rare and tended to hoard any they did get, or that they had been discontinued so they returned them to banks. Those actions further reduced the number in use, and on and on …

By contrast $2 (or equivalent) coins circulate widely in Canada, Australia, the EU, the UK, New Zealand, and other countries. Their use means that you rarely get more than one or two high-value coins in change; the much-feared “pockets loaded with dollar coins” cited by naysayers simply Does Not Happen.

If Congress could break free of Crane Paper’s thrall we could cut the BEP’s production in half while saving taxpayers $750 million to $1 billion a year, but I don’t expect to live to see that day.