The U.S. Treasury reintroduced the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note during the 1976 Bicentennial.
The note returned to circulation on April 13, 1976, which was Thomas Jefferson’s 233rd birthday. Jefferson’s portrait appears on the front, while the reverse depicts John Trumbull’s painting Declaration of Independence, making the issue especially appropriate for the anniversary year.
Although the note was reintroduced for the Bicentennial, the denomination itself was not new. The United States had issued two-dollar notes in earlier forms, including United States Notes and Treasury Notes, before the 1976 Federal Reserve version.
The bill remains legal tender, but it is less common in everyday transactions than one-dollar or five-dollar notes. Its rarity in cash registers sometimes leads people to assume it is no longer valid, which is incorrect.