Reason For Stamp And Postmark On Bills?

they were done when those $2 bills came out in 1976 to celebrate the US Bicentennial. I have several like those. They are first day issues, and some have a value around $4 or higher depending on the post office.

The 1976 series $2s were first issued on April 13, 1976- they are First Day of Issue cancellations.



I would think that replicating a USPS cancellation stamp would constitute postal fraud.



Mine was postmarked at the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, aka The Gateway Arch

Haha, Ok I get it now, its sorta cool to have a first day issue.

I used to have several of these when I was 12. I think I spent them at McDonalds. What a dummy.

He probably did it just because it was neat and he could. Don't forget that back then a 1976 $ 2.00 bill was not very collectible, it was just a new note and in most places you could go to your bank and get a handful of them, put a real nice one away in your collection and do what you want with the rest. It's a neat thing to have but me personally, I wouldn't need one in my FRN collection.
The Bill Collector

I have a couple of those too, and to me they have unimaginable premium, simply because I know my grandma and grandpa took the effort to go to their local post office & do it-- and because I know that to them in that time period $2 was a lot of money.

I have a few $2's w/the first day of issue postmark on them, and I enjoy them.

Last summer, I got about $20 of them, from my bank. I just walked in, and asked if they had any $2's. The teller reached into her drawer, and pulled out 10 stamped series 1976's, all with the stamps on them, and all in sequential order.

I thought that was pretty neat, so I kept them.

The vast majority of postmarked bills you encounter will be 1976 series $2s. However, others are out there-



I created three sets of these notes in 2009. Four crisp consecutive $5s, each with one of the four new(at the time) Lincoln life stamps, were hand cancelled by the USPS which set up a station at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, IL on Feb 12, 2009- the Lincoln Bicentennial. They were there to cancel the First Day covers for the stamps but gladly cancelled my notes as well.



I am almost certain that at least some of them were done in conjunction with the USPS and I base that on the $2 example I posted. Notice the postmark- Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, aka The Gateway Arch. The Arch does not have its own Post Office, the stamp was done by a temporary station such as the one at the Old State Capitol in Springfield for my $5s. It is also worth noting that the USPS will NOT cancel any item that does not have a stamp on it- that bit of info came directly from Springfield's Postmaster.