Sunday, August 8, 2021

Funny Money

Cash back from a purchase, produced an interesting dollar bill.


It’s pink, and I don’t think the color is bleeding from accidentally running through the washer with the colours.

When the cashier put the bill in my hand, nestled in between other bills, thinking the store was passing off dollars they probably should not have accepted onto me, I went “Oh, Oh. Is this stolen money?”

The young cashier looked clueless and said, "I don’t know".

"Well, it looks to me like somebody robbed a bank and the dye pack exploded", said I in a somewhat joking manner.

Cashier responded with a little giggle that indicated to me that she didn’t have a clue what I was alluding to.

I could have asked her to exchange the pink dollar for one that didn’t look like it had been involved in a crime, but didn’t because I wanted to keep it as a souvenir — I've added it to my funny money stash.

That’s right, I have a little stash of funny money — my favorite of which is a $2 bill.


I don’t even know what half of these coins are but, just like rocks sometimes call for me to pick them up, these coins called out "keep me".

I do know some are foreign, and two are Susan B. Anthony dollars. I once had a Kennedy Half Dollar, but it was stolen.

My fault.

When I was living in that loft apartment in Long Beach, management sent up two guys to work on something or other. One worker saw the half dollar, called out to me, while I was in another room, asking if I wanted to sell it.

My answer was, "No. I’m saving it".

When I heard his partner say, "You should have just taken it", I should have gotten up, gone into the room where the workers were, retrieved and put the coin in a safe place but didn’t; and, sure enough, after the workers left, the Kennedy coin was nowhere to be seen.

Of course, I complained to management. The complaint went nowhere.

I became a lot less trusting after that and, in ensuing years, completely paranoid of having workers inside, as I learned of far worse things that's happened to others.

Even now, every time I put in a work order here at the senior complex, I hide my credit cards, any documents that might reveal social security and/or banking information, also the organizer that holds my funny money and passwords.

Family going through my things, after I’m gone, are gonna be stumped by the pink dollar. Though, I don’t know if they’ll associate it with a possible bank robbery, thinking I might have been involved in something they don’t know about. LOL.

As for the $2 bill, I don’t know if any of them (the family) even know that yes, at one time, $2 bills were a thing, the bill is not a fake.

It wouldn’t be safe for anyone, including myself, to try to spend the $2 bill because, from what I've seen and heard and read about, it looks like not many outside of us Boomers know $2 bills are legit.

I recall hearing about a fast food worker, some three/four years ago, calling the cops on a customer who tried to pay for his meal with a $2 bill. The fast food worker refused to take the "fake" money and, when the customer insisted, called the cops.

Fortunately for the customer, the cop knew $2 bills had been a thing and some were still in circulation.

It didn’t go so well for a guy who paid for a purchase at Best Buy with an old stash of $2 bills. Because neither the cashier or manager or cop that showed up had ever seen a two-dollar bill before, the guy was actually arrested, jailed and the Secret Service was called in.

Seriously, the freaking Secret Service.

Once the Secret Service confirmed the bills were legit, they let the guy go.

I never learned what happened after that, but I hope the guy sued the pants off Best Buy.

I sometimes worry that, after my generation is gone, the world will be populated by those who have no knowledge of things associated with the Before Times.

19 comments:

  1. I had forgotten the $2 bills but my mother in law had a stash of them and used to put them in our daughter's Birthday cards. I have no idea what became of them. I think they were just spent without a hassle. Daughter is 40 now, so it was many years ago.

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    1. That's what grandmas would do with $2 bills, because it was thought of as special, but now special will get you in trouble because of so many not knowing those bills are legal tender.

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  2. I mother has a slew of two dollar bills.

    Maybe she is the one printing them, lol! My mother has quite a collection of different money and coins. And it's all legit and it actually quite worth a nice chuck of change a dealer told her.

    Hell, I have friends that see things I have and couldn't believe them. And there not even all that many years different. So I think their is already a before times. Just think, when people finds out blogs years from now and read all this stuff. Hi fellows of the future!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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    1. "mother has a slew of two dollar bills" ... that's probably why I only have one. Your mom is hoarding all the others.

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  3. I may have commented but don't know it went! But my mother has a tons of $2 bills and all odd coins. A dealer said she has a nice little chuck of change if she ever wants to sell.

    And the time of Before Times is already here. I have friend in their 20's and see things like what is that? Was that for real? Hell, Im only 20 years older them them!!!! Imagine what people will think one day when they come upon all our blogs?!?!?

    Hi People of the future!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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    1. It went, lol. Your saying the Before Times are already here doesn't surprise me as I've run into way too many young people who get that clueless look on their face when I mention this that the other. Makes me feel like a dinosaur.

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  4. I've commented about 2 dollar bills recently. I hope this isn't a repeat here. It been a while since I've done this, but I like to get about $50 in 2 dollar bills and start spending them. The reactions today might be different than years back.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS3yjfefUD8&ab_channel=TheTwoDollarBillDocumentary

    Now I really want to get some 2 dollar bills and start spending them.

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    1. Where do you buy $50 in 2 dollar bills? I want to do that and just add to my stash.

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    2. Just go to your bank or credit union and ask them to get some for you. They'll have to order them but it shouldn't take long. You can get some $.50 coins too.

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  5. I have a little stash of coins from Mexico and Canada and other places that I got from my mom. I don't know if you've ever heard of this website, https://www.wheresgeorge.com/
    but you can go there, put in the numbers on your paper money and see if anyone else has added those bills to the site. Then you can see where it's been and when you spend it, where it goes if someone else uses the site. I have a few bills on the site and others have been adding where the dollar bills have ended up. It's kinda neat.

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    1. I'd forgotten all about wheresgeorge. I used to be on there long time ago.

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  6. so sorry you lost your half dollar like that. That pink bill is intriguing. I didn't know there was a $2 bill.

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    1. Me too because I never came across another when they were in circulation.... and Oh No, you never? How interesting.

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  7. Wow. That is amazing about the Secret Service. I have a $2 bill that I put up somewhere safe. You guessed it, I don't know where but it is safe - from me at least.

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  8. My MIL used to Gift each Child and Grandchild with a $2 bill every Birthday and I'd buy it off the kids so they'd have money they could actually use. So, I had a huge stash of them and then one day most of them were gone so I have no idea who took them? Wasn't my Kiddos since they wanted to be rid of the unusual Money and have familiar Money they could easily spend. I often wonder if a Guest or someone hired to do a Service found the stash... but then I would have been paranoid about them looking thru our things since these weren't in plain sight at all and someone would have had to rummage thru a lot to find them. That creeps me out sometimes thinking about it. I'd not seen a dyed One Dollar, it's not like they make counterfeits of that since it would cost more than a buck, so that's just weird and worth Saving as "Funny Money". I have a stash of that kind of thing too {among other things, LOL}, mostly Foreign Coins and Bills, but some American.

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    1. It's awful that some people have no qualms about entering a home and taking what suits their fancy. They don't seem to realize it's a crime, a robbery. I recall someone telling me they would test friends who visited by leaving a dollar on a table near the door. If the dollar disappeared when the person left, they were confronted and told you're not a friend, don't darken my doorstep again. His having to do so is a sad commentary on life, but was effective.

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  9. I used to get Kennedy half-dollars for my birthday. Those worker/ theives - geez. I'm curious about your pink dollar bill. Would a bank robber bother stealing one-dollar bills? Maybe it's associated with a stripper, adorned in pink :).
    I remember 2-dollar bills, yes they were a thing! I wonder if they have any value (more than $2) today. Kids today - many don't know what a paper map is/was...

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    1. So, where have you been hanging out that you'd know about strippers adorned in pink? LOL. That's a good question about the value of $2 bills. I'll have to research. I've never robbed a bank, but I've seen enough TV shows to deduce that the robber tells the teller to empty the cash drawer into a bag. The cash drawer is probably a mixture of denominations.

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