About

Purpose

The $2 note is the least understood denomination the United States issues. The facts about it are scattered across government fact sheets, Federal Reserve tables, auction archives, and coin-club newsletters, and the gaps get filled by rumor. This site gathers the record in one place: when the note was issued, what it looks like, how many exist, what collectors pay, and where the folklore came from.

Two rules govern everything here. First, every date and number links to the document it came from, and government sources win where sources disagree. Second, if a claim could not be sourced, it was left out. That is why there is no Pulp Fiction scene on the pop culture page and no unattributed price chart on the collecting page.

2dollar.us is written and maintained by Kyler Vangeloff.

2dollar.us is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the Federal Reserve, or any grading service or auction house. Nothing here is financial or investment advice. Prices quoted are past sales, cited to their source, and say nothing about what your note will bring.

Primary Sources

The sources below carry most of the site. The full bibliography, every record grouped by who published it, is on the Sources page.

• Bureau of Engraving and Printing, $2 Note: history and design facts.
• Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Serial Numbers: serial format, star notes, district letters, series signature table.
• Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Annual Production Reports: notes printed by fiscal year.
• Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Monthly Production Report, September 2025 (PDF): Series 2021 $2 production.
• U.S. Currency Education Program, "$2 Note Issued 1976 to Present" (PDF): security and design features.
• U.S. Currency Education Program, Noteworthy podcast, "Much Ado About the Two": ordering cadence and why the note feels rare.
• Federal Reserve Board, Volume of Currency in Circulation: notes in circulation by denomination and year.
• Federal Reserve Board, Currency Print Orders and the yearly order pages linked from the Series and Production page.
• Federal Reserve Board FAQ, denominations issued.
• Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Suzanne J. Stone, "The $2 Bill Returns," Economic Review, March/April 1976 (PDF): the 1966 discontinuation, the 1976 relaunch, cost figures, and the Treasury's pre-1976 production table.
• Clemson University, Traditions.

Numismatic and Secondary Sources

• USPaperMoney.info, $2 note serial number tables: per-series print counts, months, districts, and star ranges, compiled from BEP monthly reports.
• CoinWeek, "The Bicentennial $2 Bill: First of a Kind".
• Stack's Bowers, "What's Your Fancy?" and MyCurrencyCollection, fancy serial number types.
• Money, "America's Very Brief Love Affair With the $2 Bill".
• WBUR, "The Legend Of The Clemson $2 Bill".
• The E-Sylum, "Steve Wozniak's Perforated Pads of $2 Bills".
• Utne Reader, "The Two-Dollar Dance".
• Miami Valley Coin Club, "History of the Two-Dollar Bill: Are They Bad Luck?".
• Forbes, "Police Involved After Student Tries To Buy Lunch With $2 Bill".
• NBC Chicago, serial numbers to look for.
• CoinNews, Series 2009 $2 uncut sheets.
• Wikipedia, "United States two-dollar bill": used for the outline and for design descriptions of individual large-size notes, never for numbers where a primary source exists.

Image Credits

United States currency is a work of the U.S. government and in the public domain. The scans used here come from Wikimedia Commons, where each file page carries its own source and license:

• Large-size notes of 1862, 1869, 1880, 1886, 1890, 1891, 1896, 1899, and 1918, and the Series 1928 note: National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, photographed for Wikimedia Commons. Files US-$2-LT-1862-Fr-41, US-$2-LT-1869-Fr-42, US-$2-LT-1880-Fr-52, US-$2-SC-1886-Fr.242, US-$2-TN-1890-Fr-353, US-$2-SC-1891-Fr.246, US-$2-SC-1896-Fr.247, US-$2-SC-1899-Fr-249, US-$2-FRBN-1918-Fr.749, US-$2-LT-1928-Fr.1501. Photographs of these public-domain notes are released under CC BY-SA 4.0.
• Series 1875 National Bank Note, First National Bank of Emporia, Kansas: Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
• Series 1917 note face: Wikimedia Commons, Jonathunder, public domain. Series 1917 back: Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
• Modern back at high resolution: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
• Series 1953 and Series 1963A notes, Series 2003A face and back, and Series 2013 face: Bureau of Engraving and Printing images via Wikimedia Commons, public domain (1953 face, 1953 back, 1963A, 2003A face, 2003A back, 2013 face).
• Series 2003 back at high resolution: scan by MikeSwanson, public domain.
• Series 2003 face (Minneapolis), the Series 2003A bank strap, brick, and consecutive notes: photographs by 2dollar.us. Series 1995, Series 2009, and Series 2021, face and back: photographs by 2dollar.us. Series 2003 star note face and its serial close-up: photograph of a note offered for sale, reproduced as a faithful copy of a public domain work.
• Series 1976 face and back: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Series 1976 first-day postmarked note: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
• Series 2017A face and back: Wikimedia Commons and reverse, public domain (the file page's date label is stale; the note shown is Series 2017A, New York).
• Series 1976 specimen face and back: U.S. Currency Education Program, $2 note features sheet (PDF), a U.S. government work.
• Continental Currency $2 of February 17, 1776: Baker Library, Harvard Business School, public domain. Continental $2 of February 26, 1777: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access, public domain.
• Maryland $2 of 1774: photograph by Daderot at the National Museum of American History, CC0.
• Confederate $2 notes of 1862 (T-38) and 1864 (T-70): National Numismatic Collection scans via Wikimedia Commons (T-70); the notes are public domain, the photographs CC BY-SA 4.0.
• Uncut 32-subject sheet: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
• John Trumbull, Declaration of Independence: Architect of the Capitol, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
• Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Jefferson, 1805, Fogg Museum: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. John Trumbull, Alexander Hamilton, 1806: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
• Gene Cernan on the Moon (Apollo 17) and inside Gemini 9A: NASA photographs, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons and Wikimedia Commons.
• Geneva Steel, 1942, Andreas Feininger for the Office of War Information, Library of Congress: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Heavily worn Series 1976 note: Bureau of Engraving and Printing scan, Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
• Photographs used under Creative Commons licenses, each credited in its caption: Fort Worth facility by Billy Hathorn (CC BY-SA 3.0); brick of one thousand $2 notes by Edward Betts (CC BY-SA 3.0); restaurant check paid in $2 bills by MykeHuntIV (CC BY-SA 4.0); uncut sheet delivery by Dodsonhalloween (CC BY-SA 4.0); Monticello west lawn by Moofpocket (CC BY 2.5).
• Detail crops of seals, plate marks, the legal tender clause, and the starred serial: photographs by 2dollar.us.

The guilloché patterns in the page backgrounds were drawn for this site and are not from any note. No image on this site was generated by AI.