Hang with Big Picture Framing

A few weeks ago, a customer brought us a sheet of uncut $2 bills. It was a birthday gift for his son’s 32nd birthday (there were 32 bills). We designed it with a suede mat on top and an Alpharag mat underneath (so that the bills were sandwiched between archival materials). Then we topped it off with some museum glass – natch! – and a waxed-finish frame that the founding fathers would’ve been proud of.

The USA still makes $2 bills. They and the $1 bill were created in the late 1800s. The $2 bill was the $5 bill for it’s time. As prices went up, the $2 bill lost use and the $5 bill gained popularity. The $2 bill was discontinued in 1966. However, after much interest, it was brought back in 1976 for America’s 200th Birthday aka the Bicentennial. Since 1976, the $2 bill is printed randomly. They’re only printed when the Government runs out of them, but there are over $1,000,000,000 worth of $2 bills in circulation right now.

Our customer had purchased the money with a sheet explaining all the info that’s printed on our nation’s currency. Granted, these aren’t the numbers you’re most interested in when counting out those greenbacks, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

The first letter in the serial number is a reference to the series of the note:
A = Series 1996
B = Series 1999
C = Series 2001
D = Series 2003
E = Series 2004
F = Series 2003A
G = Series 2004A
H = Series 2006
I = Series 2006 (Newest designs)

The second letter refers to which Federal Reserve Bank branch issued the note:
A = Boston
B = New York City
C = Philadelphia
D = Cleveland
E = Richmond
F = Atlanta
G = Chicago
H = St. Louis
I = Minneapolis
J = Kansas City
K = Dallas
L = San Fransisco

-The letter in the second row is always the same as the second letter in the serial number, and the number after it is the number of the Federal Reserve district (A is District 1, B is District 2 and so on).
-In the lower left corner, there is a letter and number that indicate the position of the note within the sheet of 32 that it was printed in. The letter is the column and the number is the row, so A1 is the upper left note in the sheet and H4 is the lower right hand note in the sheet.
-In the upper right corner there is another letter and number. The letter is always the same as the one in the upper left, and the number is the number of the printing plate. If there is a tiny ‘FW’ in front of it, that means the note was printed at the BEP facility in Fort Worth, Texas instead of Washington, DC.

Whew! Got all that? Good – now yer ready to stimulate the economy and drop some serious knowledge on that unsuspecting cashier at the grocery store.