Speaking of two-dollar bills, I wonder why they've never caught on.

[JHB]

13. Back in the 70s the plan was to replace dollar bills with coins...

...and step up printing of $2 bills. It became the focus of an early conservative rallying effort against "big government" and liberals:

1) It would force just about every business to reorganize or replace the cash drawers in their registers. More likely replace, since the singles wouldn't go out of circulation immediately and so both dollar types would need to be accommodated. It was an example of a policy coming down from on high without consideration on how it would affect those who have to deal with it on a day to day basis.

2) The basic coin size wasn't distinct enough from a quarter, so you couldn't just reach into your pocket and tell what you had by feel. At a time when people did things like paying for a newspaper by tossing a quarter in a dish on the counter while grabbing one and walking away, it was annoying that this might make you pay 4x what you'd thought. Again, messing with something that worked fine because "some government bureaucrat wants to fiddle with something."

3) Who was on the coin: Susan B. Anthony. You think RWers are making a stink now about putting Harriet Tubman on the 20 in place of Andrew Jackson? You should have heard them going on about "liberals replacing George Washington with a feminist!"