Mons L. Pisanello
VATICAN ENQUIRER (Montreal) — Canada’s Big 5 banks announced today that they have begun buying old, out-of-circulation $2 bills in reasonable condition for $20 at all their branches.
“Canadians have hung on to $2 bills since 1996 knowing they would be worth something some day,” said Elizabeth Dawkins, TD Canada Trust VP of Personal Accounts.
“Well, that day has come and you can now cash them in.”
The move to buy back the long-cancelled $2 dollar bills has Canadians searching their homes to find where they put the former currency nearly two decades ago in the belief that they would be worth a pretty penny some day.
One rare, new-condition $2 bill with a printing error was recently reported to have sold for $20,000 according to internet news site The Huffington Post.
But Dawkins said that was an urban myth and the bill actually sold for only $10,000 less TD Canada Trust’s commission.
“There are still more than 800 of those misprinted $2 bills that people have been hanging on to not knowing they’re worth a bundle. You might have one hidden away for sure but right now most $2 bills are being bought for $20 to $22.”
The interest in buying the out-of-circulation Canadian $2 bills is largely coming from U.S. and European collectors who made considerable profits on buying up Canadian $1 bills when they were withdrawn from circulation in 1989. Mint-condition $1 bills are now selling for upwards of US$45.
“We are currently expanding our program to buy Canadian $5 bills that will go out of circulation in June, 2017,” said Dwight Nault of the American Society of Notaphilists.
“$5 banknotes are now going for only $6 but we anticipate they will climb to over $9 as 2017 gets closer.”
The Montreal Gazette interviewed more than a dozen people in the city’s downtown for today’s edition and virtually all indicated they had old $2 bills but only two people could say with certainty where those bills were located.
“I’ve got four of them hidden in my old Funk and Wagnall encyclopedias,” laughed 37-year-old lawyer Denis Beaulieu.
“$80 for $8 worth of $2 bills? Sweet.”
$2 bills can be exchanged for $20 bills at any branch of the CIBC, BMO, RBC, Scotiabank, or TD Canada Trust.
Via thelapine.ca
