Tipping with $2 bills. In the news (see below) I think it's advice I picked up on TUSCL. Dancers - in my experience- love them. The usual response is genuine gratitude..."oh, I save these in a box at home." Because they have no idea that you can just get them from the bank? Strange but fun way to inure yourself to a dancer. I know its a perennial topic here but anyone ever NOT have a positive experience tipping with twos?
"Unusual but treasured $2 bill to get its turn in the spotlight"
By Brittany Shammas, Sun Sentinel
9:40 a.m. EDT, April 27, 2014
It's the underdog of U.S. currency, the greenback more likely to be found tucked inside a dresser drawer or wallet than a cash register.
The $2 bill makes up just 3 percent of all paper money circulating in the states.
Now, it's about to get its time in the limelight, thanks to a Delray Beach man who has always loved it. John Bennardo is crisscrossing the country to film a documentary that'll tell the story of the two and its "magic."
"I think everyone's curious about it," he said. "When you spend one, there's always a reaction."
Turns out it also makes for quite a story.
The quirky bill with Thomas Jefferson on the front and the signing of the Declaration of Independence on the back is more than just a collector's item. It's a regular at some strip clubs, a piece of a longtime Clemson University tradition and a tool used to show a group's economic influence.
While many save $2 bills, others make a point to spend them — just to see what happens next.
Bennardo was always one to save them. By last summer, the Immagine Productions owner and Lynn University professor of film and television editing had 11 of them in a desk drawer, sitting inside an old checkbook box, never to be spent. It got him thinking: What is it about the two?
And "The 2 Dollar Bill Documentary" was born.
Amy Byer Shainman, a Jupiter resident and breast cancer advocate who is also passionate about the bill, joined on as executive producer. She said she's kept a two her high school crush gave her for more than 25 years without knowing why.
"There's a mystique surrounding the $2 bill, a mystique that it's rare and anything that's rare is a matter of intrigue," Byer Shainman said.
After raising about $18,000 for the project on Kickstarter.com, Bennardo got to work last summer.
Some of his stops were right here in South Florida. There's Ettra Gallery in Delray Beach, where he talked to a man who turns $2 bills into art. Then there's his Miami shoot with American Healthy Vending, who explained why most machines don't take twos. And, Bennardo only had to go to Miami to capture Clemson's tradition at work during the Orange Bowl.
Beyond that, he has traveled to several states — including Texas, New York, Michigan and Oregon — and interviewed about 50 people in all. Along the way, Bennardo's discovered a whole society of others who share his and Byer Shainman's enthusiasm for the offbeat bill.
Among them is Heather McCabe, a copywriter from Brooklyn, N.Y., who requests $2 bills from her bank and spends them at local businesses in hopes of seeing the currency catch on. She chronicles the reactions she gets on her blog, Two Buckaroo.
McCabe, 39, started spending twos about 15 years ago because she liked the added interaction with people behind the counter.
"It became something a little more special," she said. "And plus, it always felt like an experiment, like, 'What's going to happen when I spend this $2 bill?'It never gets old."
Most people smile at the sight of the unusual bill and share a story about their experiences with it, McCabe said. Some take two singles out of their own wallets so they can pocket the deuce. Others refuse it, though McCabe said that's the least common outcome.
Many people believe the bill, which the federal government began issuing in 1862, was taken out of circulation. Because of that, you can find regular old $2 bills marked up to double their value on eBay, when they can easily be picked up at the bank for, well, $2.
There was a 10-year period that the government stopped printing twos. But that ended in 1976, when they were brought back — with much fanfare — to commemorate the U.S. bicentennial.
Comments
last comment2 clubs in town ONLY give change in $2s ... Casa Diablo and Black Cauldron ... Also, at most "nicer" clubs $2 a song is the minimum tip ... so with my experience dancing at dives, a $2 does not turn my head AT ALL ... its the $5s that make an impression on me. I have found that a $1 tip is usually just to save one's place at the rack / or extremely cheap customer. A few $1s implies more customer interest but $2s do not seem any different than $1s. I had received a silver dollar once (1974 eagle on the moon) and I was going to spend it like a dollar but my customer insisted I save it ... but I can't imagine it is worth much. Perhaps because these strip clubs give change in $2s customers may end up with $2s that they then use at other strip clubs in town.
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I throw them out the window going down I-26.
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I tip dancers with $3 bills.
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Once knew an old fellow that loved to carry $2 notes, $1, and $.50 coins. No place for them in a cash register. Often times he said people would think they were fake.
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I've routinely tipped with $2 bills for many years. Where do you think my TUSCL handle comes from? Dancers often tell me "I've saved every $2 bill you've ever given me!"
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The Discotheque Lounge in Augusta GA won't accept them because they do not have a place in their cash register for them.
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I get $2 bills at the bank each week and tip everyone with them. DANCERS WAITRESSES CABBIES BELLHOPS they all get $2 bills. And guess what they remember you in a good way and they will love taking care of you next time you go in. It works for me. And besides you are giving her twice as much for each set as the buck a throw guy.
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Use $20 notes. They'll remember you a lot more!
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It usually goes unnoticed when tipping at the stage. I think most assume every bill is a $1 as they are concentrating on other things.
Tipping and spending $2 bills outside of strip clubs is a way of making it known that you are a supporter the second amendment, kind of like a calling card that you carry a gun. That is why I try to get a couple every time I hit the bank. I bet Alucard wants to ban the $2 bill now.
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@shadowcat: I'd be tempted to go in with only two dollar bills, order a drink, take a sip, then pay for it. When they say the don't take them, reply with a shrug and "OK, thanks for the drink, and walk away.
Yeah, it'd likely get me "asked to leave," but hey, when you don't want to take lawful currenc of the United States, that's the risk you take.
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It's called legal tender GMD and I doubt there is a business that would not honor them.Shadowcat is snorting Flomax again.
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Your interpretation of legal tender is wrong.
"The pertinent portion of law that applies to your question is the Coinage Act of 1965, specifically Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled "Legal tender," which states: "United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues."
This statute means that all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise."
treasury.gov
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I assume the same goes for Bitcoins? Any dancers taking them?
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Steve,thats great, you did your homework.I had a restaurant for ten years,I would put Franklins and $2 bills under the till.There is always room for legal tender.
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The Red Parrot in El Paso gives them out as change at the door and the bar. I always spend them before I leave because if anyone sees you with a $2 bill at another club, they know youve been at the dirty bird. I prefer to keep my exploits to myself and the RP isn't my regular club. But I do always find it funny when strippers think a $2 bill is some sort of special rare form of currency when they are readily available at any bank.
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After platinum plus clubs keep giving them out as change whether you want them or not, I hate the two dollar bill now. I'd spend it in the club. Outside, people often know where you've been and I prefer not everyone know where I've been. A two dollar bill used to be a rare item. One time I paid a dancer for a lap dance in two dollar bills at Platinum. She asked if I had regular change. Apparently she didn't care for a bunch of two's either which was confusing because she worked there.
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Whenever the wife sees a two dollar bill, she suspects I've been to the strip club, so I avoid them like the plague. It's easier to hand out multiple one dollar bills then deal with these things.
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If my SO sees a $2 note, she figures I got a raise. :)
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@Clubber-twice with the crush.
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Actually, if I tip $2, I prefer singles. As sinclair stated, "It usually goes unnoticed when tipping at the stage. I think most assume every bill is a $1 as they are concentrating on other things." With a couple or more singles, they can be fanned out enough to make sure they know it isn't just a $1 note.
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^^^^Sucks getting old.
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Hot,
A "trick" I learned from my ATF. She was good about telling me y'alls secrets. :)
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^^^^Yeah sure you fucking dickhead.
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@steve229: No, my interpretation isn't "wrong", as I'm not interpreting anything. :)
Unless they make their refusal of currency known before the transaction, I get to assume that they'll take it. For example, all those pizza places that say they won't take anything larger than a $20 bill are perfectly acceptable.
On the other hand, if I'm reading what you posted correctly, once they give me the drink and I take a sip, then I owe them a debt and they become a creditor. :)
Hmmm, running a tab seems like it would make them a creditor as well.
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@gmd - The statute applies to existing debts. Legal tender can be refused as payment if no debt exists prior to the time of payment, such as the payment for goods or services where the obligation to pay arises at the same time as the offer of payment (as in your first example).
However, if they did allow you to run a tab then you would incur a debt subject to the statute. Caution: Strip club bouncers may not be aware of the finer points of contract law :)
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steve,
Are you serious? I thought bouncers were the legal bastions of the SC world. Well anyway, there decisions sort of become "law", don't they? :)
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@steve229: "Strip club bouncers may not be aware of the finer points of contract law :)"
No argument there, but if somebody attempts to fuck me up for attempting to pay my tab, then they will end up paying me. :)
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