I finally made it to town yesterday, through deep snow and drifts. I stopped at my favorite bank only to discover my favorite teller had moved on. My connection to having special bills set aside for me was gone. Anyway, I asked the teller for $2 bills and she asked how many. I said, "All you've got." She had some, but asked the other two tellers if they had any and they each said they did, so I got $60 worth of $2 bills from three separate tellers. When I went through them, I was surprised to see that I had 5 in sequence, but because of the way the bills were compiled by the teller, they had been split between the three different tellers. I mean, same bank, but different tellers, so I was surprised. They are all crisp, uncirculated bills and the serial numbers are really not remarkable, but fun to see.
I found my first Series 2017A note today in the form of a $2 bill that I received at the bank. Interestingly, it has been cooked a bit on the left side. It is still a mystery to me why this series even exists. The note feels the same, sounds the same, and save for the burning, it looks the same as previous series. Some claim the thickness of Series 2017A notes have been reduced but from what I can tell the thickness looks and feels the same as Series 2013 as well.
Maybe they could get rid of the 1, and print half as many 2's as 1's. The dollar coin could become functional.
I love sending new $2 notes out in birthday cards...people always comment. I also tip my barber with three of them for each haircut.
The series exists for the same reason any other series exists. The FED ordered them because their policies said they were needed.
I don't think it is understood that the signatures on Series 2017 are exactly the same as those on Series 2017A. The BEP just up and added the A to create a new series for all denominations. Vague and unclear responses have been given for why this unprecedented change has occurred. Typically, a letter is only added to a series year when the Treasurer is replaced but the existing Secretary of the Treasury remains the same. It's been discussed on this forum at some length but with no clear consensus given: http://forums.wheresgeorge.com/showthread.php?223459-The-Reason-for-2017A.
I don't think the Fed cares much about the series designations printed on the currency. They order by denomination and design generation. Indeed, Fed documents sometimes still refer to all colorized currency as "Series 2004" since that was the designation of the first colorized $20's. The BEP obviously had some reason for switching from Series 2017 to Series 2017A even in the absence of a signature change. But I'd be very surprised if the Fed had anything to do with it.