$2 bills prove industry impact 

 

Fisheries payroll visibly circulates

Once a curiosity tucked into birthday cards or saved for posterity, $2 bills have made a comeback in the Middle Keys, where a business owner recently infused the community with more than 100,000 of the peculiar bills in order to make a point.

Keys Fisheries owner Gary Graves wanted to demonstrate the significance of the fisheries industry in the Florida Keys by doling out his entire Dec. 9 payroll to 125 employees in $2 bills.

The employees comprise fishermen, mates, dock hands, waitresses, bartenders and others who work at the company's fish market, marina and restaurant. The company sells stone crab, lobster, shrimp, dolphin, tuna, grouper and snapper. They also supply the renowned Joe's Stone Crab restaurant in Miami with their world-famous claws.

Each Keys Fisheries worker received a wad of $2 bills and signed their usual paycheck back over to the company, Graves said.

The biggest challenge was finding enough $2 bills to cover the $225,000 payroll. Graves' local bank could not process his request, but City National Bank in Miami made the arrangements within a few days. The bank has been handling Joe's Stone Crab's money for 40 years, and President Jorge Gonzalez was happy to help Graves make his point.

"Many people think tourism is the main driver of the economy in the Keys, and they take the fisheries industry for granted," Graves said. "We wanted to show the community that we have a much larger impact than most believe."

Mission accomplished. Since Dec. 9, Graves said, store clerks, gas stations, waitresses, bartenders and even exotic dancers between Key Largo and Big Pine Key have noticed a marked increase in the number of $2 bills in their registers or -- ahem -- G-strings.

"One of my employees went into a local supermarket and the cashier thought they were counterfeit, had never seen one before," Graves said. "I've gotten calls from lawyers even, and people you wouldn't expect, who have been receiving them from my employees. I think you'll keep seeing them for a few weeks."

An employee of The Home Depot said, "Oh, not again," when yet another customer paid for merchandise in the unexpected currency that no longer has a place in most cash registers, Graves said.

"The whole idea was for people to remember that commercial fishermen are a big part of the community, and the response has been tremendous," he said. "It worked perfectly."

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