Editorial Standards

What This Site Is

2dollar.us is an independent reference on the United States $2 note. It is not a dealer, does not buy or sell notes, and does not appraise them. It 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. Editorial responsibility rests with 2dollar.us as a publication, and the standards on this page apply to every article on the site.

How Facts Are Sourced

Sources are ranked. Where two disagree, the higher rank wins and the page says so.

1. Primary records: the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the Federal Reserve Board and the Reserve Banks, the U.S. Currency Education Program at uscurrency.gov, and the text of statutes and public laws.
2. Grading-service population reports and realized auction sales, each cited to the house, the lot, and the date.
3. Contemporary reporting from named outlets, used for events and quotations, not for a figure a primary record could supply.
4. Dealer guides, value sites, and forums, used only where no better evidence exists and labeled as such wherever they appear.

A claim that could not be sourced was left out. Wikipedia is used for outline and for design descriptions of individual notes, never for a number where a primary source exists. Every source the site relies on is listed on the Sources page.

How Values Are Chosen

Every value on the site is a reported past sale or a published figure, not an appraisal. Realized sales beat asking prices. A realized sale is cited with its date, venue, and grade, because the same note in another grade or another year is a different piece of evidence. Where the only evidence is a dealer's asking price or a value site's estimate, the page says so.

Ranges stay loose where the evidence is thin. A series with no published sale in the site's sources is reported as exactly that, not filled in from a neighboring series. Nothing on the site is an appraisal of any particular note, and nothing is financial or investment advice.

Evidence Tiers

These are the kinds of evidence behind the site's figures, from strongest to weakest. They are never presented as equivalent: an asking price is called an asking price, and an estimate is called an estimate.

Official Record

A figure published by the government body that produced it: a Bureau production report, a Federal Reserve print order or circulation table, or the text of a statute.

Realized Sale

A price actually paid, reported by the auction house or by a named outlet, with the date, venue, and grade.

Population Report

A count of notes certified by a grading service at a given grade. A population is evidence of scarcity within the graded pool, not evidence of value.

Dealer Asking Price

What a dealer or marketplace listing asks. An ask is not a sale and is labeled as an ask.

Secondary Estimate

A range published by a price guide, a value site, or an article with no specific sale behind it. Reported with the publisher named.

Anecdote

A story from a news report, a forum, or a visitor review. Used for color and folklore, never for a figure.

Images

United States currency is a work of the U.S. government and in the public domain. Note images come from the Smithsonian's National Numismatic Collection and other public-domain collections by way of Wikimedia Commons, from government publications, or are photographs made for 2dollar.us. Photographs used under a Creative Commons license carry the photographer and the license in the caption. The site does not reproduce auction-house catalog photographs and does not use generated images; the guilloché patterns in the page backgrounds were drawn for the site and are not from any note. Every file is credited on the Image Credits list.

Review and Corrections

Every article carries a Published date and a Reviewed date beneath its title. A review re-checks each figure against its source and updates the date. Reported figures are current as of the Reviewed date shown.

Corrections with a citation go to corrections@2dollar.us. If a number on the site disagrees with its source, the source is right and the page is wrong; the page is corrected and carries a note saying what changed. Every correction with a citation is read. The address is not an appraisal service and cannot answer what a particular note is worth.

Funding

The site may carry advertising. Advertising has no influence on what is published, which sources are used, or which values are reported. 2dollar.us has no affiliate relationships: no link on the site earns a commission, and no dealer, grading service, or auction house pays for placement.