Buying money with money

Source : Radio Free Asia (RFA)

Remember two dollar bills? Some people carry one around as a lucky charm, or you just find it fascinating then spend it away anyway. Or some people like to use it to tip strippers (really, Wikipedia?). Well, there are some people who take this 'lucky charm' thing to seriously. Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported recently that 2-dollar bills have become a major hit item in North Korea... They sure hate Americans but they love the dollars! More below.


Apparently two dollar bills are becoming very popular in North Korea, and Chinese border cities are completely running dry of two dollar bills recently.  Rumors say that two dollar bills bring great luck, and everybody in North Korea wants to own one. Currently, not even black market dollar dealers and banks have run out two dollar bills.

Ordinary North Korean citizens and even the higher officials are looking to buy two dollar bills, and now it has become the new top commodity in black markets and regular markets alike. For a 2-dollar bill, people usually have to pay about 10 dollars. That's... yeah, ridiculous.

However, North Korean officials generally believe that two-dollar bills genuinely bring good luck, and it has become a great bribing gift for these officials.

A Chinese with Korean ancestry who works near the China-N.Korea border with North Korean officials says, "whenever I give a two dollar bill to a visiting North Korean official, they couldn't be any happier. Every North Korean staying in China to earn dollars has brand-new two-dollar bills in their wallets."

According to a South Korean human rights activist, "life in North Korea is so cruel and harsh, that people are adhering to every superstition they can find, even having a foreign currency as a lucky charm"

Even South Korea had a two-dollar-bill-is-lucky trend once; however, that trend is now long gone and it is pretty easy to find two-dollar bills in big banks.