Bills

August 26, 2023

I have (once more) been cleaning my closet to downsize the stuff we boxed up and carried from one house to the next.  I had already cleared out all the clothes that no longer fit.  This purge was to get rid of (donate) office supplies we have accumulated from work and home offices over the last decade.  I dutifully began with boxes from my last home office as well as the keepsakes I used to decorate my work office.  I was amazed how many writing pads I accumulated, especially since I bought a new bundle for my home office recently thinking I was out.  After working through my boxes (and tossing most as trash), I tentatively began to go through Melissa’s work boxes.  Even as I consolidated the pens, pads, envelopes, and miscellaneous supplies I was smart enough to ask before I threw anything out.  One item I came across was a small red envelope.  I nearly threw it in the trash but decided to see if it contained anything.  It was lucky I checked as there was a US$2 bill inside.

When I looked online, I found a red envelope or red packet is a gift of bills given during holidays or for special occasions such as a wedding, graduation, or birth of a baby.  Although the red envelope is from Chinese traditions, other cultures share similar traditional customs.  The red packet is also called “money warding off old age” (yāsuì qián) for Chinese New Year.  The custom has been adopted across parts of Southeast Asia, and other countries that have a sizable ethnic Chinese population.  In the mid-2010’s, a digital equivalent to the practice emerged within messaging apps with mobile wallet systems localized for the Chinese New Year.  It is traditional to put brand-new bills inside the red envelopes and to avoid opening the envelopes in front of the relatives who provide them out of courtesy.  However, to get the money, the younger generation needs to show respect by prostration (kowtow) or kneeling and bowing so low as to have one’s head touching the ground.  In Eastern Asian (Sinospheric) culture, the kowtow is the highest sign of reverence.  This act has been reduced in modern times, but it had been widely used to show reverence for one’s elders, superiors, and especially the Emperor of China, as well as religious and cultural objects of worship.  The red envelope had been given to Melissa by a friend over ten years ago and saved as an office memento of their friendship, and my finding it proved it to be lucky.

While the US$2 bills Melissa’s friend had placed inside are a past and current denomination of US currency they have fallen into disuse.  The bills feature a portrait of Thomas Jefferson (1801–1809), the third US president, on the obverse and an engraving of John Trumbull’s painting (circa 1818) Declaration of Independence on the reverse.  Pre-1929 the larger sized bills were issued as a US Note, National Bank Note, Silver Certificate, Treasury or “Coin” Note, and Federal Reserve Bank Note.  When currency was changed to a standardized size in 1928, US$2 bills were redesigned and only issued as US Notes.  The production of these bills was phased out in 1966 but reissued in 1976 as a Federal Reserve Note with a new reverse design.  As a result of banking policies with businesses two-dollar bills do not circulate as widely as other US currency bills.  

Thoughts:  The comparative scarcity in circulation and a lack of public knowledge that the bills are still being printed has inspired several urban legends about its authenticity, rarity, and value, and can create problems for those trying to use the bills to make a purchase.  Scarcity also indicates significant numbers of the bills are removed from circulation and collected by people who believe the bill to be rarer and more valuable than it is.  Or perhaps being given on special occasions it is cherished and eventually lost.  Working as a cashier, I could never figure out where to put the bills in the change drawer.  The two-dollar bills are different and do not fit naturally into cash registers but that does not make them less valuable.  The same is idea true with people.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.