About Paper Money

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Small-size Bicentennial $2 notes

Federal Reserve note denominations increased by one April 13, 1976, when the Series 1976 $2 note was issued in commemoration of the American Independence Bicentennial.

Treasury Secretary William Simon announced Nov. 3, 1975, that the note would be reissued bearing Thomas Jefferson’s portrait as on the $2 United States note, but with a reverse depicting a scene from John Trumbull's Signing of the Declaration of Independence. The April 13 release date was Jefferson’s birthday.

Treasury officials hoped public acceptance of the $2 note would alleviate demand for the $1 note, thus relieving pressure on the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The $1 note represents the bulk of the work of the BEP.

The release of the note triggered a new collector's item – the postally canceled note. U.S. Postal Service officials agreed to permit collectors to attach stamps to the bills that were then postally canceled on April 13 as a first day issue, and later on other commemorative dates.

The $2 note never became popular in most areas of the United States and it took nearly two decades before supplies fell to a level that required additional notes to be printed. In mid-1992, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing announced it would begin printing Series 1976 $2 FRNs again because its supply of uncut sheets of $2 notes had sold out. The BEP said it would print 40,000 uncut sheets of 32-subject $2 notes to be offered in four-, 16-, and 32-subject sheets of the Series 1976 notes because it was the last series authorized to be produced at the time.

Several years later, the Federal Reserve’s supply of Series 1976 $2 notes fell below its minimum levels, forcing the Federal Reserve to order additional $2 notes.

The BEP's Fort Worth, Texas, facility printed Series 1995 notes in 1996. All bear the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank seal, although they circulated elsewhere. No Series 1995 $2 notes were printed at the Washington facility. Production ended in October 1996 and the new notes entered circulation late that year. The BEP printed 153.6 million Series 1995 $2 notes. The Series 2003A $2 FRNs are the latest series to be printed.