$2 bills: Why does the US still print the rarely-used currency?

(NEXSTAR) — President Donald Trump recently called on the Treasury Department to stop minting new pennies, calling them “wasteful” after the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) set its own sights on the one-cent coin. While there is a debate to be had about the value and importance of the penny, the discussion has brought attention to another low-value bit of currency: the $2 bill.

The $2 bill has been around for more than 160 years but it is possible you have never seen one. Often considered a collectible (or, to some, unlucky), they are not commonly used. Cash registers typically don’t even have a spot for them in the till.

Nonetheless, there are more than a billion in circulation with potentially more on the way.

So why is the $2 bill still being printed in the U.S.? The simplest answer is simply that it’s still legal tender, but there’s more to the bill than meets the eye.

16 decades and counting — except for that short break

The U.S. has been producing $2 bills for as long as it has printed paper money, dating back to 1862. There was, however, a stretch of time from 1966 to 1976 when the Federal Reserve stopped printing new $2s in response to declining need and use, CNB St. Louis explains. 

The return of the bill was expected to increase interest and usage but, according to CNB St. Louis, people instead began collecting them rather than spending them. It was hard to resist collecting the new $2s, especially when the U.S. Postal Service offered to stamp them on April 13, the day of its return.

How many $2 bills are in circulation, and how many more to come?

As of 2023, there were already roughly 1.6 billion $2 bills in circulation. For comparison, there were about 2.4 billion $10 bills and 2.5 billion $50 bills in circulation.

For all currency, print orders are submitted annually to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, showing an estimate of how much currency is needed to meet the demand for customers in the U.S. and internationally. This can further be based on the amount of currency already available, usage trends, and how many worn-out notes are being replaced.

It’s the latter that accounts for the majority of the notes ordered each year, a 2017 podcast episode from the U.S. Currency Education Program explains.

As the episode notes, $2 bills don’t have to be ordered every year — the Board of Governors ordered zero $2 bills in 2013, 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2023 in part because, in the previous years, enough had been printed.

A lack of demand also reduces the need to frequently print $2 bills. Think about the last time you encountered a $2 bill. Were you spending it as part of a regular transaction or, in a sense, taking it out of circulation by giving it as a gift or collecting it for yourself?

The less a $2 bill circulates from wallets to cash registers to banks and around again, the less wear-and-tear they experience, making a need to replenish the supply less significant.

However, between 307.2 million and 416 million new $2 bills could be printed this year, the most recent print order from the Federal Reserve shows.

How much does it cost to print a $2 bill?

It is worth noting that, unlike the penny, the U.S. doesn’t “lose” money when it prints $2 bills. The most recent report from the Federal Reserve shows it costs 3.2 cents per note printed, less than the nearly 4 cents it costs to produce a single penny. That cost includes the paper, ink, labor, and “direct overhead costs” to print the $2 bill, according to the Federal Reserve. 

The variable costs for $1 bills are the same. It costs roughly twice as much to make a $20 bill (6 cents per note) and almost three times as much to print a $100 bill 9.4 cents per note).

At roughly 3 cents a note, it could cost roughly 983.04 million cents and 1.331 billion cents to print the aforementioned number of new $2 bills that have been ordered. Don’t speak in cents? That’s about $9.83 million to $13.3 million to print new $2 bills. For comparison, the Powerball jackpot starts at $20 million, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce signed a two-year, $34.25 million deal last season, and the “gold card” investor visa replacements recently pitched by Trump would sell for about $5 million.

Could the U.S. ditch the $2 bill?

Yes, but like efforts to ditch the penny, it could take time. 

Under the Constitution, Congress is responsible for regulating the Federal Reserve and overseeing our money. In a 2022 conversation about the penny, Ed Moy, 38th director of the U.S. Mint, noted it's "hard to get things through Congress." 

$2 bill — a jinx or a lucky note?

Despite their collectible aura and tradition of being handed out as a birthday gift, $2 bills are sometimes considered unlucky.

As CNB St. Louis notes, the “Tom” — the nickname stemming from the presence of Thomas Jefferson’s portrait on the bill — has been anecdotally linked to election rigging and more historically connected to prostitution in the early 1920s and gambling. Some superstitious people would even go so far as to rip off corners of a $2 bill to undo any curse related to it, CNN reports.

It isn’t all bad, however. Air Force pilots flying U-2 spy planes have been known to carry $2 bills in their suits. Fans of the Clemson Tigers have carried on the tradition of paying with $2 bills when they visit venues in other cities.

And, of course, collectors have been known to hold onto the “Toms” they come across.

Is your $2 bill worth thousands?

While $2 bills are less prominent in our circulation and used less frequently, that doesn’t mean they will make you rich. In most cases, a $2 bill is worth exactly that — $2.

Depending on certain features, though, it could be worth thousands. Those printed and minted before 1976 — and uncirculated — could be worth as much as $4,500, according to online auction service U.S. Currency Auctions.

A circulated $2 bill, even if it’s from the 1800s, may only be worth a few hundred dollars, the auction service reports. Low serial numbers and unique features could help lift the value.

Some $2 bills stamped in 1976 have done well at auction. Online records for Heritage Auctions show one such bill sold for $57 in 2022 while another sold for $11 two decades earlier. Four stamped notes went for $46 in 2015 while a bundle of 50 stamped $2 bills sold for $185 in 2001. 

But, your $2 bill is, most likely, worth only $2.