Thomas Jefferson’s birthday marked the 1976 reintroduction of the two-dollar Federal Reserve Note.
The United States Treasury reintroduced the $2 bill on April 13, 1976, which was Jefferson’s 233rd birthday. The release was part of the nation’s Bicentennial observance and made the denomination a Federal Reserve Note rather than an earlier United States Note format.
Jefferson appears on the front of the modern $2 bill, while the back depicts John Trumbull’s painting Declaration of Independence. That design choice connected the note directly with the historical themes of the bicentennial year.
The $2 denomination was not entirely new in 1976. The United States had issued two-dollar notes before, beginning in the nineteenth century, but production had been discontinued for several years before the bicentennial-era reintroduction. The note remains legal tender, though it circulates less often than $1 or $5 bills.