Woz's $2 bill sheets - The Engadget Show

Steve Wozniak prints his own pads of $2 bills... and spends them. He'll sell you a sheet with 4 bills for $5. Joshua Topolsky investigates this interesting bit of commerce on The Engadget Show.

[kev]

As explained by reddit user exteras:
"Just so people don't get confused: these are real bills, printed by the US government. He buys uncut sheets of them from the Bureau of Engraving; anyone can buy these. He then takes them to a professional printer who cuts them up into pads and perforates them.
He's not printing the bills themselves, and its not illegal."

[jaylong]

Regarding the bills...This is the deal.  It is a prank on anyone who will listen. Everything Woz says is true about using them for the last 20 years.... The bills are real two dollar bills.  He has them perforated and put on a to what he actually says about the printer 'making them', he doesn't say they are 'printing them', Woz is not lying.  The bills meet specs because the are real bills.  It's classic Woz.  And I feel bad for telling you.

[candidateyellow]

I think Woz is playing a bit of a game here. I've seen stories about him doing this before. It's real bills printed by the treasury. He's just buying the uncut sheets then binding them into a pad and perforating the sheets.

[awelux]

The interviewer thought he tiptoes around that he did something illegal but he tiptoes around that he did something legal. Lovely.

[dandymcgee]

I like how smoothly he lets the ignorant interviewer make assumptions about it being counterfeit money that Woz prints himself. He words everything so carefully so as to not ruin the effect without claiming he did anything illegal (which he didn't). This guy is the man.

0:24 Woz: "I got him the supplies from a higher quality printer."

3:25 Dumb guy: "I just wanna be clear, you print this, this is your custom printing.."
3:29 Woz: "I have the printer make these pads for me."

[rockstopsthetraffic]

His "printer" is a person, a place. The old sense of the word.

[shadowsbain]

"These two $2 bills were attached to each other and perforated. You can purchase $1, $2, and now $5 bills from the Bureau of Printing and Engraving on sheets. The sheets come in sizes of 4, 16, and 32 bills each. I buy such sheets of $2 bills...
I take the sheets of 4 bills and have a printer, located through friends, gum them into pads, like stationery pads. The printer then perforates them between the bills, so that I can tear a bill or two away."

[thursdaydawn]

He gets uncut sheets of real bills from the Department of Treasury and then he has a printer perforate them and make them into a pad. So they are real $2 bills, just very suspicious looking.

[MrBoriqua]

Steve Jobs had much more money but Woz has always had much more fun

[clembo]

@declangrindrod
He NEVER said they were self printed. Listen to the story again. He said he used a "high quality supplier". Woz buys uncut 2$ bills from the US Treasury, there's lots of stories about him doing this. It actually costs him extra to buy the uncut bills from the Treasury, but he does it to prank people. The money is in fact legal tender, he just likes to see how people react to seeing them uncut like that.

[CalvinHikes]

A lot of places won't take $2 bills. I think they're fun so I collect them but if I try to spend them there's a lot of Little Stores that don't believe they are real. Just because they are slightly rare but I'm surprised that people haven't seen or won't take cash.

[vladsinger]

It's not even leaving out part of the story. He made several comments about how his friend printed them and how suspicious they are and then most people don't seem to get the fact he was joking, unsurprisingly.

[Rathause]

Oh my god, the interviewer thinks they're fake! That's amazing and hilarious!

[thursdaydawn]

He does it as a joke, they're really like $3 each in sheet form, but it's still legal tender.

[hugostrane]

The Great and Powerful Woz doesn't need money. He IS the money.

[benjaminheroux]

He doesn’t mention once in this video that he doesn’t print them, nor does his printer friend - he purchases these and then takes them to a printer who perforates and makes them into pads for him.

[skonkfactory]

They're actually made from sheets of uncut $2 bills. You can buy them uncut from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. He pays a local printer to bind and perforate them.

It's totally legal because they're not forgeries.

[mauricecooper]

Who else had this video pop up after seeing him on Stevo?

[rapbase]

Seems like a really nice guy, like a good neighbor.

[grskgnst]

@0501701 the $2 sheets are made legally and are sold as collectibles. Woz just uses his printer to perforate the sheets and bind them into pads