CURRENCY CLUB PROPOSED 1976 TWO DOLLAR BILL

As a member of the Currency Club of Chester County (CCCC), this article caught my attention because the club successfully influenced the redesigning of the $2 bill to commemorate our country’s bicentennial in 1976. The result was a Series 1976 Federal Reserve Note. The obverse design was mainly unchanged from the Series 1963A Legal Tender Note with a portrait of Jefferson. However, the new reverse featured a depiction of the presentation of a draft of the Declaration of Independence to the Second Continental Congress, based on a painting by John Trumbull.

This basic design was proposed by the CCCC in a June 28, 1973 letter to the Federal Reserve Board. Attached is a copy of the letter, which was written by one of the club’s founding members, Nelson “Doc” Aspen. The letter is courtesy of Dave Stitely, President of the CCCC.

Even though the Federal Reserve Board did not take up the club’s recommendations for redesigning all of our nation’s paper money, it is definitely interesting to compare the proposals made at that time to the recommendations made in the last few years to redesign our existing currency.

I believe that on the first day the $2 FRN’s were issued (April 13, 1976 – Thomas Jefferson’s birthday), Doc Aspen was in Washington for the ceremony. Like the $2 bill enthusiasts mentioned in the Wall Street Journal article, he has been a proponent of the $2 bill since its redesign in 1976. Even at age 94, he still carries $2 bills around to use in change or to give out to promote the not-so-popular denomination. His advocacy of the $2 bill has inspired several CCCC members to collect examples of this denomination over the years.

Here is a link to the CCCC website for anyone who may be interested in joining the club, which welcomes members of all ages and is strongly focused on numismatic education: http://currencyclubofchestercounty.org/ .

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