So....I've Not Written a Blog in a While...

 As many of you know, I went to the Hill Country( Llano) to visit my brother and his family for Christmas, and then, come back by College Station to see my daughter in law receive her MBA from Texas A&M. 

Was a good trip, and while there I used some of the $2 dollar bills I received for performing a wedding....and it was in Llano, I first ran into someone who would not take a $2 bill. I had used them all over Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and no one batted an eye.....As a matter of fact in Iowa, LA at the Hardee's off I-10, all the workers came out to see them. ( I bought 4 $1 dollar sausage biscuits. Had exact coinage for the tax. ) The manager even traded me 4, $1 dollar bills for 2, $2 dollar bills. I bought a drink ( Fanta Black Cherry Soda, I am a fan of cherry sodas, and Buccess has a great pure cane sugar house black cherry soda) in the store adjoining the Hardee's. It was there and for the rest of the trip, my $2 bills were checked with the yellow "pen" to see if they were counterfeit. I did not know there was a problem with counterfeit $2 dollar bills in America....I think it is because people have not seen many. 

It was not until I took this trip in Central Texas did I run into people not accepting $2 dollar bills.

The first was at a doughnut shop in Llano. The girl had never seen one and did not think they were real. I put it on my Visa.

The second was in my old stomping grounds in Dayton, TX. We stopped at a Sunoco gas station for restrooms and snacks. The clerk would not accept it because he thought it was " bad luck."

There are several reasons why people think $2 bills are bad luck.

Here are a couple.

First, the $2 bill association with horse racing. Traditionally, there has been a $2 window for bets at race tracks.

Second, the belief around 1890-1910, the the cost of a girl in a brothel was $2 for a " date." As the girls in Nevada call it. In reality, the cost varied from place to place, girl to girl. So the story was " wives" would not accept $2 bills from their husbands( When they asked for grocery money, etc) thinking that they ( the husband) had more $2 bills to visit the girls later......And there was the fear that the grocer might think if you paid with a $2 you might be engaged in activities not suited for a member of the local Baptist or Methodist Church...

BTW- There are 1.2 billion $2 dollar bills in circulation.....1.7 billion $50 dollar bills......1.9 billion $10 dollar bills....11.5 billion $100 dollar bills....11.7 billion $1 bills......2.8 billion $5 bills.