About

The Two Dollar Project is my attempt to understand circulating American money.  The two-dollar bill is still produced, but most people will simply hold onto one if it comes their way.  Bills printed since 1976 have almost no value to “real” collectors, but to everybody else, they are an oddity worth hording.  The dollar coin has a very similar problem.  Although, in the case of the coins, they are designed to be collected.  There is nothing like a “limited-edition series” to make people think that something is worth holding onto.

There are also practical reasons that this currency is not used.  Coins are heavier and less manageable than bills, so the dollar bill will tend to drive the dollar coin out of circulation.  The two dollar bill, however,  is not clearly inferior.  One $2 bill is marginally better than two $1 bills.  Perhaps the margin is so small that people would rather not have to deal with organizing another type of small bill.  More importantly, because the $2 bill is not popular, vending machines and cash registers are not designed for them, making them less useful.

So my plan is to use these unusual pieces of paper and clad coins extensively, hopefully even driving the one and five-dollar bills out of my wallet.  Perhaps I’ll learn something about why some monies are popular and others are not, perhaps I’ll spread awareness about these oft-forgotten pieces of currency, or perhaps I’ll just wear a hole in my pocket from the extra coinage…