The Undesirable Deuce

Pity the poor $2 bill. Reintroduced last April 13-- Thomas Jefferson's birthday-- it simply has not caught on. To most banks, it is one more denomination of currency to worry about. Store clerks object to it because few cash registers have enough slots in their cash drawers to handle an additional denomination. Merchants fear that it will lead to mistakes at checkout counters. Some people even consider it unlucky.

The Treasury, having printed 400 million $2 bills on the theory that it could then cut down on the cost of printing so many $1 bills, still has more than half of the deuces on hand. One idea is to eliminate the $1 bill by replacing it with a coin. Then the $2 bill would become a welcome relief from the load of silver people would need every day.

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