Grand Avenue by Mike Thompson for February 16, 2015

Mr. Jefferson ??? Been a long time since I last saw a $ 2 bill , especially in active circulation .

Still available. Request them at your bank— they’re fun to give as tips, especially when the waitress accuses you of passing phony currency.

Party, same with dollar coins, especially in places with foreign wait staff.

absolutely. queer as a 2 dollar bill, she said with a grin.

Oh well.

further research seems to indicate the existence of the phrase using a 2 or a 3 dollar bill. of course, there never actually was a 3 dollar bill as us currency.

partyalldatyme: Back in the 1990s, I used them in my book store; then the bank refused to let me have them any more. The whole “bad luck” association was started by capitalists against the emphasis on Jefferson by the Populists a century before. The banks didn’t know why, but they blindly followed century old prejudice just the same, through Progressives, New Deal, Citizens, and now Green Parties to the present. It doesn’t have to do with five compartment cash registers, that was part of the campaign. Mine had six, and used half-dollar coins with the same bank resistance since Kennedy was on those..There were $3 bills in US 1700s, Republic of Texas, and the Confederacy. Strictly collectors’ items today.

Hippogriff, I heard that in the 19th century when votes were bought, the payment was a two dollar bill. Anyone with a two dollar bill was thought to have sold his vote in the election.

interesting, olddog and hippogriff. everything i read said there were no 3 dollar bills as legal tender in this country, or mention of texas or the confederacy. many superstitions around the 2 dollar bill but not as proof of voter fraud. cool

I’ve heard of military bases paying everyone in 2 dollar bills to end discrimination against the military around the base. Very effective.

They were also used extensively for race horse gambling, but all those were after the banks’ campaign against Jeffersonian democracy.