It's not easy spending green

You have entered 57,347 Bills worth $164,885
Bills with hits: 4,627 Total hits: 5,246
Hit rate: 8.07% Slugging Percentage: 9.15% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,187.55
Your rank (based on George Score) is #402
(out of 53,202 current users with a George Score. [99.2 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 25 out of 7,137 [99.6]

It’s not easy using $2 bills. I went to Panera today and ordered lunch. The total was a little over $10. I handed the cashier 6 bills, but she said that she was told not to take them. When I asked why, she said that the bank shredded them, referencing the markings. This bothers me for several reasons.

First, there aren’t many banks in the area and I know that the Wachovia nearby does, in fact, hold on to them. I’ve actually gotten some of my marked bills back from them. It’s possible that they recently switched to the Commerce Bank, but I doubt it.

I also doubt that they shred the bills. I’m thinking that her manager may have meant that the were sent back to the FRB to be shredded, but either way, why would Panera care? If they’re being credited with money, it shouldn’t matter. I guess that the manager (or whoever made the decision) knows that I don’t want them shredded. I guess it’s better to hold on to them and at least spend them somewhere that will hand them back out as change.

Most importantly, it means that they’re not getting them back into circulation. Instead, they’re depositing the bills. For this reason, it’s probably just as well that I not spend them there. If a store is actually refusing them for this reason, there’s very little chance that they’d ever change.

After Lunch, I went to Party City. I wanted to get some glow sticks, but didn’t want to pay $15-$20 in shipping. I was able to get an assortment for very little money and paid for it in… you guessed it… $2 bills. The cashier had to ask someone if it was ok to take them. I guess it was because she eventually took them. This is pretty common, but is still annoying.

I’ve also decided that it’s too much of a pain to spend cash in the Apple Store at the mall. They are able to go through the line and process credit and debit purchases right away, but you have to wait for cash. I was first in line and had to wait at least five minutes to be helped, despite the fact that several cashiers were just standing there. All I wanted was an iTunes card. I even had the money counted out. Could they suspend a transaction and help me? Obviously not. I’m thinking that I should get my iTunes cards elsewhere.

Small bills

You have entered 24,882 Bills worth $67,738
Bills with hits: 1,873 Total hits: 2,099
Hit rate: 7.53% Slugging Percentage: 8.44% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,083.12
Your rank (based on George Score) is #838
(out of 52,295 current users with a George Score. [98.4 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 44 out of 6,262 [99.3]

I actually got a lot of $2 bills from Washington Mutual today. I was able to get 70, which brings me to just over 600 entered. Washington Mutual seems like they’re a pretty good bank to get twos from, even though it‘s usually hit and miss. In fact, one of the bills was already entered into the system. The user that initially entered the bill seems rather fond of $2 bills. It’s nice to see that someone else is entering them.

On another note, I went to a mall in Broward the other night and had the chance to purchase an iTunes card. I paid for it in marked singles, which I think the cashier put underneath the other bills. I have no way of knowing since the tray wasn’t visible. Since it was towards the end of the day, it’s possible that they were saving them for the next day, but I doubt it. Putting the bills at the bottom of the stack usually means that they’re going to deposit them.

I got that today with some $2 bills that I spent at Aventura Mall. The cashier put them at the bottom of the singles stack, which I took to mean that they’ll be deposited. Even when a cashier puts them next to the twenties, I worry that they’ll be deposited. At work, we’ve never given a $2 bill as change. (I usually swap them out to enter and mark; if I’m not there, my coworkers will deposit them.)

I think that this is why my hit rate on $2 bills is at 0.7% and my hit rate on singles is at 8.5%. No one reissues them like singles. $2 bills have the lowest hit rate of any denomination that’s gotten a hit. (I have no hits on twenties, fifties or hundreds.) Twos almost have it as bad as hundreds in the sense that they’re usually deposited. At least $2 bills are sought out by a small fraction of the population and you can get 50 times as many bills for the same price.

I’d like to see the day when $2 bills are given as change at places other than Monticello.

$2 bills and then some

You have entered 24,219 Bills worth $66,091
Bills with hits: 1,822 Total hits: 2,038
Hit rate: 7.52% Slugging Percentage: 8.41% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,079.75
Your rank (based on George Score) is #851
(out of 52,256 current users with a George Score. [98.4 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 43 out of 6,245 [99.3]

I got another new county in Georgia, bringing up the total to 22 counties out of 159.

I was in Starbucks today and I saw a $2 bill in the tip jar. I don’t know where that person got it, but they apparently thought it a good idea to give it as a tip. It’s possible that they got it as change at the Starbucks or somewhere else in the mall, which would be a good sign. It’s also possible that they’re like me in that they want to get them into circulation. I checked the bill and it wasn’t marked, so I can be relatively certain that it wasn’t mine.

It’s funny that since I wanted to ask why people why they put toms under the register, I haven’t had it happen as much. It usually happens at McDonalds and there’s enough of a line that I don’t want to hold things up. However, some of the people there have started putting them in the register. I still have no idea if they’re giving them out as change or not, but it’s progress and I’ll take it.

The one chance I did get to ask was at the Apple Store. The woman at the register said simply that they didn’t have the space in the tray for them. I told her that if she put them under the register, the bill would never see circulation again, hinting that I wanted the bills to get back out.

I did pick up a lot more at the bank today. Washington Mutual had fifty of them and a Bank United had another two. I wanted to get fives, but didn’t think of it until most of the banks were closed. It doesn’t really matter. I have some and should have a chance to get more tomorrow.

The big thing for me is entering all of the bills tonight. I wish that I had gotten sequential twos, which would have made things much easier. Then again, there’s always stamping…