United States P545k 2 Dollars 2017A (K: Dallas, TX) UNC | Thomas Jefferson | U.S. independence

Series: 2017 A

Issuing authority: Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas “K”

Front: Thomas Jefferson

Back: John Trumbull's famous painting The Declaration of Independence, depicting the presentation of the draft to the Continental Congress in 1776—an idealized scene of the nation’s founding rather than the actual signing. Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration.

Composition: Paper (25% linen, 75% cotton)

Size: 156 × 67 mm

About the bill

The current U.S. $2 bill features on its front a portrait of Thomas Jefferson, adapted from Gilbert Stuart’s 1806 painting, with the Treasury Seal in green and the Federal Reserve Seal (in this case, “K” for Dallas). Together, the design pairs Jefferson’s role as principal author with the collective moment of political birth, making the $2 note the most explicitly “founding-document” themed of all U.S. banknotes.

Why $2 bills are special

The U.S. $2 bill is unusual not because it is rare, but because it is printed and issued in far smaller quantities than other denominations and circulates very little. Low public demand has led the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to produce $2 notes only in occasional, limited runs, and not at all from 1966 to 1976.  The note was reintroduced in 1976 for the Bicentennial, with the reverse redesigned to show the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Most cash distribution systems—ATMs, vending machines, and even cash drawers—are built around $1, $5, $10, and $20 bills. Combined with the widespread (but false) belief that the denomination is discontinued, this low issuance and weak circulation cause people to hoard them or treat them as novelties, reinforcing their reputation as an oddity.

John Trumbull (1756–1843) was an American painter of the early republic who set out, with almost archaeological seriousness, to give the new nation a visual memory of its own birth. Trained in Europe under Benjamin West, he specialized in large historical canvases depicting scenes from the American Revolution, the most famous being The Declaration of Independence (1817–1819). Rather than painting a literal moment, he constructed an idealized tableau, carefully researching faces, uniforms, and settings to create a dignified political myth in oil—part documentation, part nation-building. 

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) was one of the principal founders of the United States: a philosopher-politician, diplomat, and later the country’s third president. Trained in law and steeped in Enlightenment thought, he articulated ideas of natural rights, popular sovereignty, and government by consent that shaped the political identity of the new republic. His intellectual legacy, more than his military or executive role, is why his portrait appears on the U.S. $2 bill.

The Declaration of Independence adopted in 1776, is the document in which thirteen of the British North American colonies formally announced their separation from the British Empire and asserted their right to form an independent state. Drafted primarily by Jefferson, it argues that all humans possess inherent rights and that governments exist to protect those rights, deriving their legitimacy from the people. The scene on the reverse of the $2 bill shows the presentation of this text to the colonial assembly, symbolizing the moment when political authority was claimed to rest not in a king, but in a nation of citizens. 

Seven British colonies did not join the independence movement: 

• Quebec (including today's Ontario), Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, which would later form the Dominion of Canada; Νewfoundland which joined Canada later;
• The Bahamas and Bermuda, and
• East and West Florida which returned to Spanish rule in 1783