Some say that the design of the $2 bill is a work of art.
But have you ever seen a work of art littered with so many little letters and numbers?
What do they all mean?
Hi, I'm John, director of The Two Dollar Bill Documentary, back with the latest in my series of videos where I answer your questions about the $2 bill.
I've been getting some great questions
submitted to this post on my Community page on my channel, and I encourage you to keep it up.
It helps me come up with lots of great new content. And remember, if I use your question to make a future video,
I'll send you a crisp new $2 bill.
For this video Disasterpiece5150 claims the prize for his question
What does the number on the back of the $2 bill in the lower right corner mean? He's referring to this number
which appears right above the words TWO DOLLARS.
But stick around because we'll also address what the small numbers on the front of the $2 bill mean.
It would help to know a little about the printing process first.
$2 bills are created from printing plates which make 32 notes at a time.
But it's not just one master plate that does all the work - there are many.
They're created here, in the Plate Making room at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, almost always in Fort Worth, Texas.
In fact let's address one set of letters on the $2 bill: if your bill has an FW here it was made in Fort Worth.
If not, it was made in Washington, DC. In addition to the standard design
you see on the twos, each master plate has unique engravings in select spots.
These are numbers or letters, and they help the bureau identify the individual plates that bills were printed from.
The simple answer to the question is that the number on the back of the $2 bill is called the Plate Serial Number.
It identifies the plate number from which a bill was made. "Every plate has to have his own number in it.
It's the only number that's actually etched into the plate for identification purposes."
Here you can actually see this number having already been engraved onto the plate.
It has to be engraved backwards so it prints properly.
Two dollar bills are printed backs first, then left to dry for 72 hours.
Only then are the fronts printed. So it's an entirely new plate - a front plate - that's used for that side.
Because a different plate is used for the fronts, THAT plate number has to be identified,
and so the Plate Serial Number for the front of the bill is placed here.
The plate number may not be of any interest to you,
but the letter and number in the upper left corner on the front of the bill might be.
Charlene Williams, who oversees the production process in Fort Worth, explains.
So this sheet here starts as 32 subject, and there's four quadrants on this sheet. This is one,
two, three, four.
And it goes A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H.
One, two, three, four.
Here it is again graphically.
The 32 notes are divided into four groups of eight, numbered one through four.
Then the letters are added, A through D on the left side of each block, and E through H on the right.
This assists the printing process because if a particular bill has a consistent error, like a smudge, they can
identify where on the sheet the error is. In this case, the smudge is on E3.
Let's remove the graphics for a minute and see if you can figure out where your $2 bill was located on a sheet
if it reads E2.
Figure it out? It's up here, in the corner.
The only marking I left out is the one between the FW and Plate Serial Number on the front right of the bill.
This letter will always match the plate position letter you just saw.
It's worth mentioning that the same rules apply for one dollar bills because they have a similar design
But since there are so many more $1 bills printed than twos,
I've noticed that the plate serial numbers are often much larger on the ones than they are on the twos
because more sheets have to be utilized.
That's it for this video. If you want to learn more about how $2 bills are made,
check out this video right next to me. And don't forget to subscribe to my channel for more great $2 bill content.
Thanks for watching.