Your Old $2 Bills Might Be Worth a Lot More

$2 bills have historically been a rare and interesting segment of the U.S. money supply. The Federal Reserve reported that in 2022, $2 bills in circulation amounted to $1.5 billion, just a small portion of the $54.1 billion in total currency circulated last year. And while their face value may not seem like much, their actual worth could be much more than just two bucks. 

Heritage Auctions, the largest auction house in the world that deals with currency, claims that a $2 bill from 2003 with a low serial number recently sold at an auction for $2,400 and was later resold for $4,000. Bills with red seals can sell for $3 to $2,500, while those brown or blue seals can go for several hundred dollars.

Older bills are even more valuable. An 1869 $2 note can sell for more than $3,000; there's one currently listed on eBay for $7,999 and one on Heritage Auctions' website that's expected to sell for upwards of $12,000. Auction site U.S. Currency Auctions estimates that uncirculated $2 bills from its inception in the Civil War era up until 1917 are worth at least $1,000 each. 

The bill has seen many iterations over the past century and a half. The current version has Thomas Jefferson on the front, while the back portrays the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which Jefferson primarily wrote. The most recent nationwide reintroduction of the bill happened in 1976 in honor of the U.S. bicentennial. 

Time to start digging in those couch cushions.