by Suzanne Houghton

Created on: July 08, 2009   Last Updated: July 20, 2009

Should we stop printing the $2 bill? I probably know what you're thinking:

* Why not? There isn't even a place for them in most cash registers.
* I don't think I've ever gotten one in change.
* I thought they stopped printing those things years ago.
* Wait, the U.S. has a $2 bill?! When did this happen?

Yes, the Jefferson two-dollar greenback just doesn't get much respect. Although it's been around since 1862, the deuce-dollar is still something of a currency enigma; much like the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin, it's become a loveless wallflower of American money. Along with his grimly resigned pal Washington on the dollar bill, Jefferson didn't get a fancy-pants makeover the way Lincoln, Hamilton, Jackson, Grant and Franklin did in the mid-1990s. And why not? It was hardly worthwhile for the Federal Reserve to expend money on a redesign of these small-denomination bills - one used every day, the other rarely even seen - because no sane counterfeiter would go to the trouble of printing them.

But why is the Federal Reserve continuing to print the $2 bill at all? It's a fair question. $2 bills are not in high circulation, to the point that some people believe they're rare and worth more than their face value, leading to bill hoarding (let's dispel that notion right now: though they are not printed as often as the other denominations, they are not rare bills, and they are worth exactly two dollars). Others, apparently confusing the $2 with the phony $3 bill, have refused to accept it as legal tender. As previously mentioned, most cash registers do not have a designated spot for $2 bills, making them less likely to be handed out in change to customers. In fact, if you go to the bank and ask a teller for your money in two-dollar bills, you'll probably have to wait a few minutes while someone goes to the vault to retrieve them. It may be more trouble than it's worth to continue printing this little-known and rarely-used bill.

That's not to say $2 bills are wholly worthless. In specific times and places, the Jefferson greenback has enjoyed short spurts of popularity as a novelty, or as a way of showing a particular group's financial clout within a community. The $2 was in common circulation with American servicemen and -women overseas during the 1980s. In recent years it has become the denomination of choice in strip joints, where the $2 is handed out as change instead of $1 bills to increase the amount of tips given to dancers. (Where has that bill been? You don't

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