(NEXSTAR) — President Donald Trump recently called on the Treasury Department to stop minting new pennies, calling them “wasteful” after the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) set its own sights on the one-cent coin. While there is a debate to be had about the value and importance of the penny, the discussion has brought attention to another low-value bit of currency: the $2 bill.

The $2 bill has been around for more than 160 years but it is possible you have never seen one. Often considered a collectible (or, to some, unlucky), they are not commonly used. Cash registers typically don’t even have a spot for them in the till.

Nonetheless, there are more than a billion in circulation with potentially more on the way.

So why is the $2 bill still being printed in the U.S.? The simplest answer is simply that it’s still legal tender, but there’s more to the bill than meets the eye.

16 decades and counting — except for that short break

The U.S. has been producing $2 bills for as long as it has printed paper money, dating back to 1862. There was, however, a stretch of time from 1966 to 1976 when the Federal Reserve stopped printing new $2s in response to declining need and use, CNB St. Louis explains.

The return of the bill was expected to increase interest and usage but, according to CNB St. Louis, people instead began collecting them rather than spending them. It was hard to resist collecting the new $2s, especially when the U.S. Postal Service offered to stamp them on April 13, the day of its return.

How many $2 bills are in circulation, and how many more to come?

As of 2023, there were already roughly 1.6 billion $2 bills in circulation. For comparison, there were about 2.4 billion $10 bills and 2.5 billion $50 bills in circulation.

For all currency, print orders are submitted annually to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, showing an........

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