Value of Old Two Dollar Bills? | Price Guide - Old Money Prices (2024)

Before we begin, it’s important to have a basic understanding of the factors which determine the value of your $2 bill. To get the most money for your vintage two dollar bill, if you’re like me, you’ll want to educate yourself a little bit before.

If you don’t want to spend the time, you can always send us a picture of your bill and we’ll give you an exact value.

On top of that, I’m a huge history nerd… I completely nerd-out when it comes to the history behind old paper money. I truly love what I do.

If you’ve seen the hit television show on the History Channel,Pawn Stars, then you may have seen an old two dollar bill like these before.

We’ve been fortunate enough to work closely with this popular shop’s currency department for years now, buying and selling collectible paper money with them.

This guide doesn’t show every single $2 bill ever issued, simply because there are some exotic two dollar bills that don’t exist in public hands.

If you’re unsure what you have, feel free to contact us, we’re happy to tell you what you have.

The First United States $2 Bill

The first $2 bill ever printed was on November 29th, 1775 during the Colonial Period.

This was during the midst of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) so you can only imagine what stressors were being dealt with whilst printing paper money.

After colonial and continental currency came the Confederacy and their paper money bills. The first confederate $2 bill was printed by the U.S. in 1862 issued in Richmond, Virginia.

The Confederacy’s early attempts to raise funds centered on printing money, which proved highly inflationary, and issuing bonds that could be paid for in kind.

After the Civil War, many people destroyed Confederate Currency because it essentially had no value. However, some people saved them, which is why they’re so scarce today.

Old two dollar Confederate notes are relatively easy to obtain, especially in poor quality.

If you have something similar to what’s pictured above,your bill may be fake. Counterfeiters during the Confederacy were a dime-a-dozen.

The ability to fake one of these bills was easy. A lot of what we see today is modern replica money.

Fake notes look pretty obviously fake, but we’ll get more into spotting fakes a bit later in this post.

If you’re uncertain, contact us and we’ll tell you if your old $2 bill is real or fake.

The transition from Confederacy into the more organized U.S. Treasury system you can see security features were put into place to deter the low barrier of entry into counterfeiting.

According to theU.S. Currency Education Program,“all currency issued since 1861 remains valid and redeemable at full face value.”

The Federal Reserve printing period, which began in 1861, Congress authorized the issuance of $2 bills.

There were two types of bills printed close to 1861 which were the $2 national bank notes, printed and delivered to individual national banks around the U.S. and also 1862 & 1863 $2 Legal Tender Notes.

The “original” series $2 national bank notes, aka “Lazy Deuce“, are quite unique and values can range dramatically depending upon which bank issued them.

If you want to find more information about national bank notes, see this informative page where we list over 13,000 banks across the United States.

In some instances, we’ve paid over $45,000 for an old $2 bill like the two pictured above. It really comes down to a number of factors like condition, serial number, type, and place of issue.

Feel free to reach out to us if you are interested in selling your old currency.

During this same time period, $2 legal tender bills were also printed. These bills are the closest to confederate notes as you’ll ever see.

The paper is thin, the security features are limited (see the red seal and green ink in the picture above to see what I’m talking about).

But this was a huge step in the right direction to deter counterfeiting and make it that much harder to accomplish.

Legal tender $2 bills from 1869, also known as Rainbow Notes, are some of my favorite bills to collect from the series, simply because they’re so attractive.

The Federal Reserve focused heavily on increasing their security features by adding multiple colors and also adding fibers and partially blue paper.

The reason these rainbow notes are so popular is simply due to their stunning color.

The red, blue, and green are usually vibrant and make for an exceptional conversation piece.

These two dollar legal tender rainbow notes generally cost between $175 for decent condition and better condition for around $670. We’ve paid over $2,000 for especially high-grade examples of this note.

If you have a legal tender note and want a full price guide, check out this page we wrote for a more in-depth look.

The image above is a real Small Size antique $2 Legal Tender bill. Between 1869 and 1880 there are multiple different types of $2 bills.

Below I will list every type, but in this brief history breakdown, I decided to skip them for now.

As you can see above the $2 1880 dollar bill has a large brown seal to the right. This specific design is seen as late as 1917 shortly before they stopped issuing large size dollar bills.

Next came the 1890 $2 Treasury “McPherson” Note. This bill also comes with a small red seal unlike the large brown seal pictured above.

Treasury notes were only printed in 1890 and 1891. Sometimes called two dollar coin notes, the two dated bills look very similar outside of the seal colors.

Almost all large size currency bills from the 1800s have taken on a nickname in the collector community.

The 1890 and 1891 Treasury notes have simply been nicknamed “McPherson” notes due to the person on the bill. James B. McPherson is the bearded man on the right-hand side of the bill.

See this full value guide we made for old $2 Treasury Notes.

Two dollar silver certificates from 1891 are very popular among collectors. Virtually no fake $2 1891 notes exist, so the likelihood of you having a real bill is high.

We would love to see what you have, please contact us by email or phone today.

The value of 1891 two dollar silver certificates is based solely upon condition. These bills are often worth $500. However, we have paid over $1,000 for higher-grade examples.

The 1896 $2 Silver Certificate “Educational” series of notes is one of the more popular among collectors due to its depiction.

To learn more about two dollar educational notes, you can visit this value guide we wrote here.

1899 $2 Silver Certificate notes, also known as “Mini Portholes” by collectors, have a mini George Washington with Allegorical figures on either side.

Silver certificate notes were tradable in silver at local banks. This means you could take your old $2 silver certificate bill and exchange it for exactly two-dollar in silver at the time.

Quick tip:these bills are legal tender, meaning you can bring them to the bank and get $2 cash. two dollar notes, in better condition, have collector value and bring much more than their face value.

The last type of $2 bill we wanted to share was the issue 1928 Red Seal Legal Tender Note. The two dollar red seal 1928 note is a small size bill, meaning its the same size as today’s money.

Old bills with unique serial numbers, like the two pictured above, will bring a higher premium in the marketplace. Serial number 1 notes almost always cost more money to buy.

If you want to learn more about rare serial numbers, check out this page we wrote all fancy unique serial numbers.

If you don’t see your bill pictured above, make sure to scroll through to see the rest of the two dollar bills printed by the United States.