2 Dollar Bill Mishaps

well I'm from Canada and have seen many weird things with paper money...I tried using some US money when I was out west and the country folk out there thought they were counterfeit..... And the same thing happened on a holiday in the eastern part of the US.. I was paying with a 20.00 Canadian and the restaurant called the local police, thinking I was passing counterfeit money.. Thank God the Officer spent time in Canada..All ended well ( with a free meal ) Thought both instances were quite funny

I find that the younger the cashier, the more clueless they are; the fun really starts when their immediate supervisor is likewise clueless.

Last week, I spent a dollar bill and a two dollar bill at different places. On the single the chick looked at me blankly and showed it to her supervisor, who nodded, saying "I haven't seen one of those in a long time". As to the deuce, the clerk held it up, looked at me, and said "This is what we had before we had toonies, right?" I nodded, and she stuck it in her drawer under the twenties, not knowing where else to put it.

JFK halves are fun -- many clerks think they are dollars because of their size. My rule is that I'll correct them twice, but I won't do it a third time; if they want to take them as a buck, so be it. I had a situation where I was paying for a $3 purchase, and gave them a toonie and two JFK halves. When the clerk was counting up, he looked and then said, "Four dollars." I corrected him, saying, "No, that's three dollars." He looked at me like I was crazy, and said, "No, four dollars", pushing one of the JFK's back at me. I pushed it back to him and said, "No, you're wrong, it's three dollars -- a toonie and two fifty-cent pieces is three dollars." He looked down at the coins, looked at me, picked up all the coins, and put the toonie and one JFK in his drawer, while handing me back the other, and then looked past me to the customer there, while closing his till drawer. I took the half he handed to me and walked out.

Like I said, I'll only try and correct them twice. The third time, I don't bother.

Here in the US, Canadian coins are quite common in your change, epsecially in the border states, but no loonies or twoonies. Is the situation different in Canada? I never heard of spending JFK halves in Canada.

Coins92:

I lived in rural Texas in the mid-1990's... great place!

I somehow got a hold of a couple of two dollar bills. The clerk at the Winn-Dixie wouldn't take them, nor the gal at Burger King. I ended up exhanging them for singles at the Texas Bank in DFW.

What nickname do Americans give to the two dollar bill?

David

American money spends quite freely in Canada and always has. Coins are quite common, and the closer you are to the border, the more common they are, and you often get them in change. As for the bills, they are a different matter altogether.

The banks give exchange on currency, but not coin; the reason has to do with storage/shipping costs.

You never receive US currency in change; not even when the Canadian dollar was worth more did this happen. The danger with spending US bills in Canada likewise has to do with the exchange rate, and what that particular merchant is giving or charging depending on the difference between the two dollars. Right now, the American dollar is worth $1.09 Canadian, but merchants are likely giving anywhere from a 4 to 7 cent premium on it, which can influence where you spend American dollars if you are spending a lot of them, because that's a $3 difference on $100.

The other thing is that the banks often have a 2% float to cover themselves if there should be a downturn in the exchange rate before they ship them back to the Federal Reserve.

I'm a big fan of the $2 and spend them as much as possible. Cashiers often smirk as if I'm giving them something rare and worth more than face value.