People don't even know what we have now. Why add to the problem with a new dollar coin (or a new 2 dollar coin)?

On my way home from work, I stopped at Taco Bell for a quick bite to eat. In my billfold are a $50 bill and a $2 bill. I figure that with a $2
bill, I can get something to eat and not have to worry about anyone getting irritated at me for trying to break a $50 bill.

Me: "Hi, I'd like one seven-layer burrito please, to go."
Server: "That'll be $1.06. Eat in?"
Me: "No, it's to go." At this point, I open my billfold and hand him the $2 bill He looks at it kind of funny.
Server: "Uh, hang on a sec, I'll be right back." He goes to talk to his manager, who is still within my earshot. The following conversation
occurs between the two of them:
Server: "Hey, you ever see a $2 bill?"
Manager: "No. A what?"
Server: "A $2 bill. This guy just gave it to me."
Manager: "Ask for something else. There's no such thing as a $2 bill."
Server: "Yeah, thought so."
He comes back to me and says, "We don't take these. Do you have anything else?"
Me: "Just this fifty. You don't take $2 bills? Why?"
Server: "I don't know."
Me: "See here where it says legal tender?"
Server: "Yeah."
Me: "So, why won't you take it?"
Server: "Well, hang on a sec."
He goes back to his manager, who has been watching me like I'm a shoplifter, and says to him, "He says I have to take it."
Manager: "Doesn't he have anything else?"
Server: "Yeah, a fifty. I'll get it and you can open the safe and get change "
Manager: "I'm not opening the safe with him in here."
Server: "What should I do?"
Manager: "Tell him to come back later when he has real money."
Server: "I can't tell him that! You tell him."
Manager: "Just tell him."
Server: "No way! This is weird. I'm going in back."
The manager approaches me and says, "I'm sorry, but we don't take big bills this time of night."
Me: "It's only seven o'clock! Well then, here's a two dollar bill."
Manager: "We don't take those, either."
Me: "Why not?"
Manager: "I think you know why."
Me: "No really, tell me why."
Manager: "Please leave before I call mall security."
Me: "Excuse me?"
Manager: "Please leave before I call mall security."
Me: "What on earth for?"
Manager: "Please, sir."
Me: "Uh, go ahead, call them."
Manager: "Would you please just leave?"
Me: "No."
Manager: "Fine -- have it your way then."
Me: "Hey, that's Burger King, isn't it?"

At this point, he backs away from me and calls mall security on the phone around the corner. I have two people staring at me from the
dining area, and I begin laughing out loud, just for effect. A few minutes later this 45-year-oldish guy comes in.

Guard: "Yeah, Mike, what's up?"
Manager (whispering): "This guy is trying to give me some (pause) funny money."
Guard: "No kidding! What?"
Manager: "Get this ... a two dollar bill."
Guard (incredulous): "Why would a guy fake a two dollar bill?"
Manager: "I don't know. He's kinda weird. He says the only other thing he has is a fifty."
Guard: "Oh, so the fifty's fake!"
Manager: "No, the two dollar bill is."
Guard: "Why would he fake a two dollar bill?"
Manager: "I don't know! Can you talk to him, and get him out of here?"
Guard: "Yeah"
Security Guard walks over to me and......
Guard: "Mike here tells me you have some fake bills you're trying to use."
Me: "Uh, no."
Guard: "Lemme see 'em."
Me: "Why?"
Guard: "Do you want me to get the cops in here?"
At this point I am ready to say, "Sure, please!" but I want to eat, so I say "I'm just trying to buy a burrito and pay for it with this two
dollar bill.

I put the bill up near his face, and he flinches like I'm taking a swing at him. He takes the bill, turns it over a few times in his
hands, and says, "Hey, Mike, what's wrong with this bill?"
Manager: "It's fake."
Guard: "It doesn't look fake to me."
Manager: "But it's a two dollar bill."
Guard: "Yeah?"
Manager: "Well, there's no such thing, is there?"

The security guard and I both look at him like he's an idiot, and it dawns on the guy that he has no clue.

So, it turns out that my burrito was free, and he threw in a small drink and some of those cinnamon thingies, too. Made me want to get a whole stack of two dollar bills just to see what happens when I try to buy stuff. If I got the right group of people, I could probably end up in jail. You get free food there, too.

I have to start doing that more often again. I so want a lawsuit handed right to me to play with

I need to start spending $2 bills again (if I can find the stupid things). The Burger Kings around me are....well.....run by people who have zero common sense. I've got my fair share of free things from them already due to wrong orders, rude managers, filthy place, etc. Just another way to pee them off as much as they do it to me.

Oh how I love free stuff......especially when it envolves revenge.

That has to be one of the funniest numismatic related stories I've ever heard. Love it!

I would have cowarded out by then, or gotten punched, or maybe both. Yeah, I'd go with both.




PS. What a thread to have my 100th post in!

I have one in my wallet right now. I get them frequently at the bank and spend them around town, and have little or no problem ever. I do have problems with SBA's though.

Man, that joke went over my head. Oops. Great story by the way.

I've never had a problem spending $2.00 bills. But I don't eat at fast food places very often.

Do most banks carry $2 bills? I need to return about $150 in change and may get a stack (depending on what a stack costs). Been a LONG time since I've had a $2 bill in change.

Go to China-Town in NYC and that's about all they give back. Parents returned with three or four $2 bills from their trip.

2s cost 2. Most banks and SaLs of any reputation have at least some of them.

Makes you kind of wonder if you bought a bunch of those Clinton $3 bills and tried them on him if he'd argue with you about them. Of course, that would most definitely mean free food...for many years to come!

This is an Urban legand story thats been kicking around the internet for years.
http://paul.merton.ox.ac.uk/tales/money.html
http://www.snopes.com/business/money/tacobell.asp
http://www.milk.com/wall-o-shame/two_dollars.html

Its still a funny story and might have happened to someone at one time.

Bustchaser... how could you?

Either way. It made my day.

I'm sure that within a couple of years you'll find store managers who will refuse to believe that half dollars ever existed..

Even though this story is an urban legend, the story of the guy getting arrested at the Best Buy in Maryland is certainly true!

In March 2005, the Baltimore Sun published a tale like the one described above, only taken one step further: the subject reported he actually was arrested for proffering payment with $2 bills.

Mike Bolesta, a 57-year-old Baltimore County resident, stated that in February 2005 he purchased a radio/CD unit for his son's automobile at Best Buy (a chain of retail electronics stores). Bolestra said in order to rectify a mix-up they'd made in selling him the wrong unit, the store initially waived the installation charges for the stereo, then called him back the next day and threatened to report him to the police if he don't come in and pay the $114 installation fee. Irked that Best Buy had gone from "them admitting a mistake to suddenly calling the police," Bolestra decided to stage a mini-protest by paying the charge with fifty-seven $2 bills. He described to the Baltimore Sun what happened next:

"I'm just here to pay the bill," Bolesta says he told a cashier. "She looked at the $2 bills and told me, 'I don't have to take these if I don't want to.' I said, 'If you don't, I'm leaving. I've tried to pay my bill twice. You don't want these bills, you can sue me.' So she took the money. Like she's doing me a favor."

Nonetheless, police were summoned when a Best Buy employee noticed that the ink on some of the $2 bills was smeared, and after one officer noted that the serial numbers on the bills ran in sequential order, Bolesta was handcuffed and taken to the county police lockup. Police reportedly kept him handcuffed to a pole for three hours while they notified the Secret Service, but when an investigator from that agency (which is tasked with handling counterfeiting cases) determined that the currency was legitimate, Bolesta was finally released.

jtryka I never knew that story was real! My dad told me that a few years ago and he wasn't sure it was true either.

People these days are rather clueless as to our money. Wonder what would happen if someone tried to pay with silver certs....

I knew a guy that worked at the local gas station who saved all the old coins and such that he received and he used to show me what he found whenever I came in. One time he got a number of old FRNs and US Notes that apparently were the subject of an imbroglio at a local supermarket. Apparently the anticounterfeiting pen didn't work on them, so they called the police. But it turned out the money was just old.

Almost as funny are the stories of cashiers accepting those funny money bills.

GREENSBURG, PA-September 1, 2004 — Pennsylvania state police aren't laughing about the person who passed some funny money – a $200 bill with President George W. Bush's picture on it – at a women's clothing store.
Among other things, the bill had a hokey serial number – DUBYA4U2001 – and didn't bear the signature of the Secretary of the Treasurer. Instead, the bill was "signed" by Ronald Reagan, whose title was "Political Mentor" and by Bush's father, who is listed as "Campaign Advisor and Mentor."

The back of the bill was even goofier.

It depicts the White House with several signs erected on the lawn, including those reading "We Like Broccoli" and "USA Deserves A Tax Cut."

http://www.thought-criminal.org/2006/08/02...thing-we-trust/

*slaps head* Wow! I cannot believe the the woman would try to pass that off and not one, but TWO people have been fooled with these obviously fake notes.

It boggles the mind...Honestly though, I bet the people I used to manage would be fooled by a $200 bill. Two or three people there wouldn't be (one including my sister, she checks all the money for foreign or old stuff for me ) but the rest just might be.

Two things.

Firstly, I seem to remember a south american fellow being arrested after trying to sell 1 billion dollar bills at a fraction of their cost to investors a little while back.

Secondly, I spend $2 bills, SBA's SAC's and 50 cent pieces all the time, and every time I spend one, I either get...."Is this real" "What is this" "I thought this was a quarter" "I didn't know they still made these" "Why would you spend this, arn't they rare" comments all the time.

And on a side note, an old silver certificate passed through work the other week, and the girl marked the heck out of it with the bill checker pen, saying "I don't know what's wrong with this bill, it looks funny, I think its fake!" Meanwhile I looked at her and asked her to compare that one and another from her till. She looked at me and said "I don't know, they look the same, but this one is blue, what's wrong with it, was it printed without green?" I then told her to actually READ the bill, then I saw her eyebrows move into the (Oh, duh) position. She said "Well, okay, but can we accept these, I mean they don't even make them anymore." At this point I handed her a 1 from my wallet and walked away...lol.

Since I started this serious post the other day, fully knowing that I would be "busted" (See why they call me Bustchaser.) I feel compelled to bring this old thread back to the front. I often purposely spend obsoletes just to see the look on people's faces.



Priming the Pump

I've had a few of my cashiers nervously ask me if we can accept anything from Sacs to $2s to Ikes. Also had customers nervously ask if they were'allowed' to spend things like Morgans and silver certs. You certainly can, folks! I'll gladly accept.

Not all cashiers are dumbies....

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/fakemillion1.html

But there's a sucker born everyday.....

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/16/...D8FQ6NCO1.shtml

What's with these bill marketing pens/markers? Are people not able to tell what money is without them??

BTW, I only know of one place in my area that uses them. And it's stupid how every $1 bill is totally messed, even if they're sequential UNCs.

Spend Morgans each for 10 times face says I.

The marking pens are necessary because there is supposed to be so much bogus currency in circulation. I have them in the kiosk with me and haven't yet caught any bad notes with them. They are supposed to make a brownish to yellow mark on genuine notes which fades away in a few hours, but leave a black mark on a fake note which is indelible. The one bad note I got was from a fellow dealer who paid me with 19 $100 notes. One had a black mark across the obverse which had bled through to the reverse. I handed it back to him and he gave me a different one.

For all either of us know, it could have been marked with a Sharpie pen, but I didn't want to take the chance of putting it in the bank. If you deposit counterfeit at the bank, you're out the money in the best case and could be hassled by feds if you're not lucky. I use the night drop to unload cash and wouldn't like getting a surprise like that.

Funny -

I was at store when a customer was trying to pay for an item and did not have enough money she pulled out a 2005 Kennedy 50 cent - she had the same problem - since I was behind her in the line I simply gave her 50 cents in change.

I have to say coming from the UK I find the US currencey really confusing, and that's not because I have never visited America.

In the UK we have the following:

Coins - 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 & £2 coins with special commemorative(sp) £5 coins
Notes - £5, £10, £20 & £50 notes

In the US I believe you currently have:

Coins - 1c, 5c, Dime, Quarter & Half Dollar coins with special commemorative(sp) $1 coins
Notes - $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100

One thing I have never got about the US currencey is, that in 2006, you STILL have $1 & $2 notes. Why is this so, many other currencies (UK pound, Canadian, Australian & New Zealand Dollar, Euro, etc.) have coins for these low values. The $1 & $2 notes must wear out very quickly, our £5 notes certainly do so why doesn't the US do this.

Personally I think the US should have a complete rehash of the materials used for it's currencey, I would do it as:

Coins - 1c, 2c (possible new coin?), 5c, Dime, Quater Dollar, Half Dollar, $1 & $2
Notes - $5, $10, $20, £50 & $100

It works well in other countires around the world so I can't see why it wouldn't work in the USA. What do others think.

Well Johnny you've opened a can of worms there. The $1 bill vs $1 coin argument goes round and round and round. It'll never be resolved in the current climate.

Sure the US has tried to introduce a $1 coin on two occasions recently but it all comes down to the fact that people will use whatever they are familiar with so if you don't withdraw the bills then the change will never happen. However, the bills have fans where it counts.

Mmm... good idea. More coins to collect!

That brings up another endless topic, why introduce a 2c coin when there's so much talk about axing the 1c coin?

Oh, I know that. When I wanted to spend a ten euro commemorative at "Aldi" ( ) the seller looked at me and was asking what that is. I told him that it's a commemorative, it's a legal tender, but he went to the manager and around ten minutes later after calling the bank if it's a legal tender he accepted the coin. And I know, I'll never spend ten euro commemoratives again. It costs too much time to explain everything, but the faces of the sellers are priceless

Marvin

Fair enough, if they are going to axe the 1c coin then there's no point of a 2c coin. I believe that Australia dropped their 1c & 2c coins in the early 1990's and that New Zealand have also done the same but are also dropping the 5c this year and have redesigned the 10, 20 & 50c coins.

We've only dropped the 1/2p over here (25p coins were commemorative only although were & I believe still are, legal tender), I don't think the 1p & 2p coins will go for ages yet seeing as the Royal Mint had that competition last year to redesign the reverse of the 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 & 50p coins. Although there has been no further information regarding this for over a year now.

Again I find this rather odd, in the UK when the £1 coin was introduced in 1983 it ran in tandum with the £1 note until they withdrew the £1 note in 1987/1988. The £1 has been a great success although 1% (about 1 Million) of them in circulation are fakes suprisingly enough.

I just think it's odd that the US mint haven't decided "balls lets withdraw the $1 note regardless" considering the fact they now must cost more to manufacture than what they're face value is now surely. Also I have heard that they have stopped making new $2 notes is this true?

The 25p coins are still legal tender, as are sovereigns and half sovereigns. Double florins too if i recall correctly.

Based on the redesign concepts i saw it'd be a lucky escape if the redesign was shelved.

With regards to the 1c coins, don't forget that a US cent is roughly about the value of 1/2p. 1p & 2p coins are practically worthless, although useful as an inflationary brake, which was the argument the British government put forward in the mid 70s about the 1/2p. It was kept merely to slow inflation down.

I think you're right about the 25p, Sovereigns & half sovereigns I'm not sure, seeing as they still make them. However I'm very sure the Double Florin isn't it was only minted for 5 years before they decided to stop minting them. I also think it became non legal tender before the £sd system was abolished.

Interesting, in regards to the redesigns. Do you have a link to any of these at all please.

What the USA copy Europe? Unthinkable...

Ha the fake £1 coins, yeah there was a period when they seemed to outnumber the genuine article!

Most interesting thing since George V Florins in change, ha 1991 was a good year.

It is very blurred quite what is legal and what is not. Sovereigns and half sovereigns are definately legal tender for £1 and 50p respectively.

Double Florins (according to Coincraft) were remonetised (to 20p) in 1971 [that's if they'd ever been demonetised in the first place of course?]. Of course the Royal Mint's view on that may differ.

The 1971 coinage act also redenominated the Maundy Money from Old pence into New Pence (including post-1840s wreath reverse silver threepences as they are difficult to tell apart). Not bad, how many coins go up in value?

The jury is still out on 5/- pieces.

There's still quite a few of them around, you get alot off of Off-Licences (Liquor stores) or (mainly) from British Rail.

Sadly someone has mastered how to copy one of the bridge designs, my brother got his first fake one a few weeks ago. I have seen so many now I can tell the difference between the fake & real by two tell tale signs:

1) The inscription is usually really poor on the side of the coin
2) The head / tail side don't usually match up. Instead of ↑↑ it's usually ↑→ on the fakes

Interesting, although the Sovereigns and half sovereigns usually trade for collectors more than anything and brand new ones go for around £100 & £50 each respectively(sp)

I've seen some with correct alignment, albeit somewhat blurred details.

I'm building myself a nice date set of duds. Incidentally the main source of many of them was what used to be called British Rail.

Well yeah that goes without saying, you'd be mad to spend a sovereign as a £1 coin. Should you be mad enough to try though the person on the till would have to accept it. Although somehow i doubt they'd require much persuasion.

I also have a theory that vending machines would accept sovereigns as 50p coins based on weight. Although the metallic signature would be wrong but it depends on the vending machine of course and how it detects the coins going in. If only i was rich enough to try it out.

Yes that's the other thing as well they're either blurred or have "extra" details

I must have about 9 duds lying around somewhere, some I've spent at the Off-Licence or British Rail station it came from in the first place

Always train stations! I had noticed that. (Or taxi drivers apparently). Bus drivers know better though.

i don't know though some of the staff in the shops (best not to name a particular chain for legal reasons) in the UK are a bit thick they'd probably think it was a funny coloured 10p coin or the like

Most machines that I'm familiar with have size as the first condition, followed by metallic content. Weight is probably the least important factor, and the considerable difference in size would throw it off right away.

Well, what you gonna ax the penny? You gonna ax him fo change fo a dollah? Pennies can't answer no questions. Whuffo you tryin to talk to pennies fo?

Ahaha, sometimes I crack my ownself up.

I could arsk you the same!