Yahoo Finance Police called after student tries to pay for lunch with $2 bill
An eighth-grade student in Houston, Texas had a run-in with police after she attempted to buy lunch at school with the seldom-seen US$2 bill.
Danesiah Neal told Forbes that the cafeteria workers at Christa McAuliffe Middle School thought that she was using counterfeit currency when she tried to pay for her chicken nuggets with a $2 bill given to her grandmother, Sharon Kay Joseph.
$2 bills are rarely seen in circulation in the U.S. It was discontinued in 1966 because of low use and unpopularity. But 10 years later production resumed and it has remained a denomination since then. However, it is commonly assumed that it is no longer in circulation.
According to U.S. Department of the Treasury, $2,430,720,000 worth of $2 bills were produced between 1976 and 2012.
It currently bears the face of former U.S. President Thomas Jefferson on the obverse, and John Trumbull’s famous depiction of the presentation of the draft of the Declaration of Independence to Congress on the reverse.
Neal told Forbes that when a police officer arrived, they told her that she could get in “big trouble” for using a counterfeit bill.
In the U.S., a person who is caught intentionally using phony currency can receive a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
Counterfeit currency is a major problem in the U.S. According to Business Insider, as much as $220 million of fake money is being circulated in the country.
The issue with Neal’s cash was resolved after school officials reached out to Joseph, who told them that she had given her granddaughter the bill to spend on lunch.
Police also went to a convenience store where Joseph said she initially got her hands on the bill, and a local bank where its authenticity was confirmed.
