I Have What Might Be Considered A Stupid Question.

An interesting question.

If they were to issue commemorative notes I think the $2 denomination would be the most ideal for a few reasons. 1) It's obscure enough to the casual person to be novel enough to get attention. After all how often do you see $2 notes in general circulation anymore. The only way to get them is to ask for them at the bank or order them directly from the B.E.P. 2) Since the denomination isn't being used for general circulation and it's been pretty much relegated to a sort of collector's item anyway, why not release commemorative ones with different designs like they do with coins. And since both the U.S. Mint and the B.E.P are under the authority of the treasury department they could be companion notes to the commemorative coins issued. 3) It's a low enough denomination that anyone could afford to collect them, as long as the surcharge isn't too high.

The BEP primarily does commemorative (collector driven) currency by utilizing the serial numbers. I've got hundreds of $2 notes with serial numbers representing the year of issue. The series date on modern US paper money doesn't change every year, like coins, so having the year of issue incorporated into the serial number is pretty cool.

Does the general public actually look at their coins ? It was just a couple of years ago I discovered that the Mint had four different reverse designs on the 2009 Lincoln Cent.

Interesting...

Philistines!

I suppose you don't know about the Westward Journey nickels then?!

Just before switching to paper money, I was up late one night watching television and stumbled upon Mike Mezack, who was hawking a pair of the Westward Journey Nickels in ICG PF70 holders. He talked me into them something like 15 years ago.