Unless you are a stiff and never tip any service people, you probably are accustomed to shelling out a few bucks for wait staff, a valet, concierge or some other service. You break out your wallet, or pull out a wad of bills you’ve stuffed in your pocket just for that purpose, discretely select an appropriate amount and pass it over to the recipient with a hearty thank you. A ho hum exercise in civil society that’s a bit more painful for those of us with less means that those with plenty. OK, so how can we make it a little more jovial? How about pad of $2 bills. Seemingly just off the press, ink freshly dry, all serial numbers sequential and in numerical order, neatly assembled and connected together at the top like a good legal pad, each note ready to be peeled off and disbursed in grateful manner to the deserving party.

“Why thank you my good man. Let me give you one of these, fresh off the press last night”.

You retrieve your innocuous pad of bills and proceed to peel off the remuneration, handing it over to the wide eyed recipient who is now puzzling whether it’s real. The almost certain question arises and you get the pleasure of either A) passing along the reality that $2 bills are legal tender, still in circulation, and encouraged to be used by the US Treasury, or B) explaining how your nefarious uncle printed these up last night in his basement. (Selection B is discouraged as you may have some explaining to do to the Secret Service later.) In any case, the novelty of the pad thing adds to the levity of the moment. Feel weird about using $2 bills, you can do the same thing with ones, fives, tens, and so on. If you decide to do it with hundred dollar bills, I personally accept tips. :-)