At one point or another, someone – often a favorite aunt or a grandparent – gave you a $2 bill for the holidays or your birthday. They probably told you to hang on to it because it’s rare and soon to be a collector’s item. Being eight, maybe 10 years old at the time, you took this advice to heart and buried the (soon-to-be) treasure under your sweater drawer or pressed it between the pages of Treasure Island, fittingly enough, a book about pirates and buried gold.
Today, it is estimated that there are almost $1.2 billion worth of this currency hidden in sweater drawers or pressed between the pages of a book, unspent and collecting lint, but not gaining much in actual value.
The Truth About the $2 Bill
U.S. $2 bills are very much in active circulation and are still currently being printed, although not in the same numbers as other denominations. They make up less than one percent of yearly printed bills. Still, this does not make them “rare,” at least not as far as this word is understood in antique money circles.
Most $2 bills are worth little more than their face value. If they are uncirculated or in sequential order, they might be worth a little bit more to a dealer. Generally speaking, the older the bills are, the more value they hold. An avid and serious collector might be enticed to pay a little more for a $2 bill with a red Treasury seal. But as a rule, $2 bills with green treasury seals are worth just that – two dollars.
The next time you decide to do a little spring cleaning, be on the lookout for these oft-forgotten notes tucked away in a long unopened drawer somewhere, along with vaguely remembered childhood days. They may bring a smile to your face at the memory of your favorite aunt or grandparent they stir up. These bills can also still buy you a decent cup of coffee, if nothing else.
