$2 Bill Pad

Amaze your friends, impress your family, confound sales clerks and infuriate wait staff with your very own $2 bill tear-off pad. As you peel bills off the stack, they will have a hard time believing your carefully bound bundle of bills are the real deal. This is not only a classy way to carry around your money, but sure to start conversations wherever you go.

When Babak of TOOOL first told me how to make a $2 bill pad, I just knew that I had to make my own. The idea has stayed in the back of my mind for a long while and when I got some extra cash for the holidays, I knew it was finally the right time. I am sure glad that I did and I highly recommend that you make one for yourself and your loved ones.

Step 1: Go get stuff

To make this, you will need:

- $100 dollars worth of brand new crisp $2 bills. It is easier than you may think to acquire these. Go to the largest bank in your area and simply ask the teller to exchange $100 for 50 crisp new $2 bills. If they don't have them on hand, then they should be able to order them for you. I went to the largest Wells Fargo branch in San Francisco for my $2 bills and the teller didn't even seem to flinch when I made this request.

- Rubber cement

- (x3) 0.08" x 2.61" x 6.19" chipboards

- 2 to 3 quick release clamps

Comments

[ccrome]

Awesome. I made one this weekend. Love it.

[randofo]

Very cool! Post a picture please :-)

[ccrome]

Alright, made another one last night. I decided to bind it on the short edge rather than the long edge. It works just dandy that way too.

I did make one mod to this instructable, which is to add a paper decoration to the back, and to use that paper decoration as an extra binding on the edge. This should give some extra strength to the whole thing, but as the bills are used, the excess glue won't rub off. That a definite drawback to using a paper binding -- the original may be better in that regard. I'll see how it goes as I use up my $2 bills. I cut the paper to the height of the bill, but a little longer, then folded the excess across the binding, then trimmed with a sharp knife.

[Mihsin]

Great! how do I get those bills in Beirut?
Excellent idea, I will do it with Lebanese money. It'll be even nicer if you can get silver certificate $ bills.
Best regards

[technosasquatch]

even cooler if you can get them in sequential order

[skylane]

This IS a great idea! if I have time I'm going to make some. I already have $200 worth in sequential order.
I love spending $2 bills and $1 coins. (Susan B or Sacagawea dollars)
I totally baffled a kid at Burger King one day. Gave him a $2 bill & a $1 coin. He called to manager to find out what to do with the $2 bill. After he figured it out, he called the manager back to find out what to do with the $1 coin! I wasn't sure if it was sad of funny.. LOL

[mrmerino]

That's... disappointing.

[orangesrhyme]

I worked at a Burger King last year and had to ask what to do with odd currencies. (for me) it wasn't so much doubting their legality as it was "what slot of the register do you want these in". For humanity's sake I hope his was a similar dilemma...

[sconner1]

It is likely if you order a full banded stack of brand new bills that they will be sequential.
I might keep the bottom cardboard glued to the spine for extra notepad look-and-feel and to keep the bills crisp longer.

[JamesRPatrick]

Sad. Definitely sad.

[Rlangg]

Your Burger King kid reminds me of the valet parkers who can't drive my manual tranmission car. It's so funny.

[qlue]

Automatics are so scarce here I South Africa that many South Africans don't even know they exist! :p.
(we also don't have 'valet' parking. Unless you count the guy with the AK in your face!)

[enginepaul]

Now, that's FUNNY. Unfortunately true, but funny.

[king kolton9]

ok.... ARE YOU SERIOUS!!! A FREAKIN AK-47!!!
Ok um... sorry but has tht ever happened to you?.... (thinks ill never go to africa EVER!!!)

[qlue]

lol Hijackings are common in most areas! High levels of unemployment combined with not enough policing is a bad combination! :(
Fortunately, I don't have any personal experience with this but I have many relatives who have been victims! :(

[dreamweaverabc]

Well, that reminds me of the guy who saw me pull right up to his store as he washed the glass door, watched me get out of the driver's side, got my service dog out of the back seat, and when I entered his store he asked, "You're not COMPLETELY blind, are you?"

Yeah, you idiot. My dog drives from the back seat and I just sit in front so we don't draw a lot of attention to ourselves. (For those who don't know, a service dog is for multiple kinds of disabilities, but is NOT a guide dog. I'm thinking of making a T-shirt that says, "I don't look disabled? Well, you don't look stupid."

[ReverieAerie]

Dreamweaverabc, if you make that shirt, I would totally buy it. ...Even though I'm not disabled. I love your dog, by the way :)

[Cyberscann54]

it may be funny to you now but I bet it will stop being funny when you have to replace the transmission

[Rlangg]

I'm teaching my daughter how to use a payphone, just in case.

[badideasrus]

while your at it, teach her how to drive a manual. its more likely she'll run into one of those than a payphone (though i actually have used one recently)

[brainmist]

I loved the PO stamp machines for Susan B/ Sacagawea dollars. Put in a $20, buy one stamp, walk around like a pirate with your loot, plus the satisfaction of the slot-machine win sound without the horrible slot-machine induced debt.

[riff raff]

It's funny...and sad. They don't even know how to count back change any more. If they don't have a computer screen telling them the amount to hand back in a wad, they're lost. :-/

[static]

I'm fairly certain it's not fair to blame anyone about something they may never have been taught or may never have experienced a cashier counting back change. In today's hurry up world many will be irritated with a return to change being counted back. These days I notice the shelf above the cash drawer is almost always can't be used for what I was taught to do. I was taught to place the money on on that shelf, so if a customer tries to claim they gave you a larger bill than they did, you can show them what they gave you.

[knightowl]

You have never worked retail. It is such a boring, soul crushing experience, that if you don't shut your brain off and zone out you will probably shoot up the place.

IT is so much better, my nice safe cave....

[susanrm]

I've worked retail, and yes, it was boring. So to keep myself interested and entertained, I taught myself to count back change quickly without the aid of the register, and to keypunch using the keypad. Instead of becoming a brain-dead zombie, I became quicker and more efficient, developing skills I still use today, including when I teach students to count back change.

[paperclip32]

Good for you,but I doubt the 16-year-olds that work at my local McDonalds are very keen on challenging themselves.

[susanrm]

Yeah, that's how old I was when I started doing what I said above (at McDonald's, no less). :-) Best not to prejudge; you never know!

[king kolton9]

There was this... A LAZY SLOB at the bowling ally today (an employe mind you)
we had our service light on for 1 and 1/2 hours and he , and the other employes ignored it. Someone in my group went up 5 min after i put the light on because of the stuck ball nobody came, because nobodys' haves brains (It's a long story don't ask) In the bowling ally that would take time to get our ball.

[Drevious32]

You should consider using padding compound instead of rubber cement, it is a little cleaner and less toxic.

[raf70]

2$ bills ARE easy to get in SF, as opposed to anywhere else, why?

so-- i was in san fran a few years ago and asked the teller at a major bank for 2$ bills. she said how many do you want? i said how many do you have. she glared at me and said how many do you want?! so i was like 100$? and she grabbed what must have been 1000$ and put them in a counting machine and gave me my measly 100$ in 2$ bills. i commented about this to my friend from SF who said, yeah the google guys (brin and whatever his name) apparently want to bring the 2$ bill back and only pay for things, everything, in 2$ bills. i can neither confirm or deny this story.

anyone else hear this story? RA

[snadra]

I love this idea! You'll have easier and faster-drying results with real padding compound instead of rubber cement, though. Check it out here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005N9J97S/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=cnjstore-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005N9J97S

[actimm]

I enjoyed the comments on obscure American Coins, but if you really want to mess with the younger generation, find a bunch of Kennedy 1/2 Dollars. They are really big, about 1 1/2 inches in Diameter. They stopped making them in the 70's around the same time the Susan B Anthony dollar coins came out. I still find them from time to time.

[DanYHKim]

My favorite story about using the Kennedy half is from "Glory Road" by Robert Heinlein. In this book, the hero impresses peasant a kid (on another planet) by gifting him with a "medallion", which was a Kennedy Half, figuring that the coin is the biggest and most garish thing he probably would ever see in his life.

[sconner1]

I'm pretty sure Kennedy halfs are made right through the 80s but in smaller quantities for circulation. They were still part of proof sets.
I've never seen a Susie B in any year other than 1979.
Post office vending machines used to give them as change until the golden Sacajawea dollar coins took over.

[quantumkittty]

lol, they actually started redistributing them from 1997 to 2005, though, it still screws with those of the younger generations.

[sconner1]

Fun gag!
I love that this is made with the least known and least used U.S. note.
Our tax dollars at work. And they want to stop making pennies!

[djimdy]

What I really like about this is that the $2 bill appears to be the only one that doesn't have a building exterior on the reverse and instead has an incredibly beautiful rendition of the signers of the Declaration.

[ilpug]

Well, their metal value is now worth more than one cent, so it might be a good idea.

[waldosan]

actually the united states dollar isn't backed by gold anymore, technically neither is the euro, so i sincerely doubt that the penny is too. for real proof you can google around but my personal favorite faux proof is that you can't go to a bank anymore and ask for a dollar's worth of gold.

[sconner1]

I think he meant that a penny has more than 1 cent worth of copper and zinc, not to mention the labor and overhead of minting them.
You're right though the dollar hasn't been based on gold since the '30's I think.