Fenntucky Mike

The Smithsonian has made available, for free, the new book America's Paper Money. It looks like it mainly covers the designs/imagery of U.S. notes, with the main focus being obsoletes but it looks to touch on Continental Currency, NBN's and the Educational SC's. Did I mention it is free to download HERE.

Scanning is better, more convenient, for most people and yields excellent results overall, it's cheaper and most people either have a scanner in their home or have access to one through work or friend, etc.. I will however say that if I was trying to judge the condition of a note I would much prefer an image be taken with a camera and it does not need to be high quality necessarily. Scanning produces a flatter looking image and the bright lighting can hide flaws, an image taken with a camera gives you a better idea of how a note lays, waviness, soiling, etc., because your not flattening the note while capturing an image of it and you don't have the harsh light, typically, that can washout flaws. I don't think I've ever bought a note based off of a scanned image.

A good scanner does wonders for your note images. I also changed to using a black background when scanning my notes, it helps define the edges of the note better, especially notes with white or light colored edges. I discovered that a little late and probably have a few hundred notes that I'm in the process of rescanning. The scanner I use has 600dpi resolution.

I like it to, one of my favorite notes. The note is from Ukraine and the portrait is of Lesya Ukrainka. Here is a little write up, Journal Entry, I did on her and the use of her likeness on Ukrainian currency from a few years back.

German issued currency, designed and distributed for use in Ukraine while under occupation by German forces.

Binary-Radar-Rotator

Serial # 4. The first two digits are the prefix or print run number most don't consider them as part of the serial number but PMG does.

Russia and Germany have been trying to push, conquer, neighboring countries/people around for hundreds of years, the only difference is that Germany stopped after WWII. The Russian Empire had taken over the territory of Ukraine long before WWI but when the Russian Revolution began in 1917 Ukraine declared independence and the Central Powers (Germany) helped kick the Russians out of Kyiv for a short time but once the armistice was signed, and the Communists took control of the Russian government, they moved back into Ukraine and took it over again. Once WWII broke out Germany took control of Ukraine again in 1941 and were looked at as liberators by some, having kicked the Russians out a second time, but by 1944 the Russians had moved back in and stayed in control until 1991. Many consider Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia notes to have some of the best designs ever drafted on paper money.

The subject sheet was folded during printing, looks like it was folded from the start of printing and was feed through the presses three times and still escaped the BEP, pretty unusual for that to happen. It looks legit to me but it would be worth it to have PMG certify it as an error. I saw similar error notes selling for around $400 on HA, the note is in lightly circulated condition but I wouldn't be shocked if it sold for closer to $500 based on what I saw.

Mmm, , maybe more. I'd have to take a look a some auction records but $1,000+ wouldn't surprise me for a modern U.S. solid number note in similar condition. I think you're underselling again, I'd bet a SC or GC solid S# note would go much higher. I would think that who ever is distributing the bundles of straps for the FRBs is cashing in on the low serial numbers and fancy numbers, bank tellers will cherry pick notes too. It's all about who you know.

That number definitely catches your eye when you first see it, it's a fun note. I don't personally collect near miss serial numbers but I'm sure some one would pay good money for a note with a serial number like that. I'd bet you could get triple of what you paid for it.

Lots of people collect notes with numbers that have special meaning to them, birthday, anniversary, jersey number, etc.. None are fancy typically but are special to those who collect them. Asia goes gaga over luck numbers, 2, 6, 8, & 9 are the good ones I think and 4 is bad (death). No one is touching a solid 4 note over there unless they are saving one to give to an enemy or mother-in-law. I'd be tough to regulate what is and isn't an actual fancy number on sites like ebay, there is just so many, Everyone's best bet to avoid getting ripped off is to learn by attending a few shows, visiting their local coin shop, or coming to reputable sites like PMG and a few others.

I'll get out to regional shows once in awhile as long as they are located in the upper mid-west, Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburg, Nashville, etc., those cities are not a far drive for me, 8hrs or less, and I can leave early morning catch the show in the afternoon, spend the night head back to the show in the morning and leave late morning early afternoon. I'll head over to Detroit once or twice a year and to Grand Rapids, MI and Kalamazoo, MI three or four times a year for local shows. I've never attended FUN but hope to go one day, I thought I was going to be able to go in 2023 as I was scheduled to be in Orlando for work around the time FUN was scheduled but we finished up early and left just before the show started.

Super fancy notes do go for a premium over fancy notes, a lot less to go around.

Probably the main difference between coin and currency collecting to me is that currency is more cut and dry as far as what a fancy number is, what an error is, etc.. Coins are struck in the billions all the time, probably the main difference is the number of individual dies required, how those dies are made, and the minting process in general. The printing process is much more repeatable and more easily monitored. There are short runs printed from time to time but that seems to happen less and less as time goes on, from what I've read once the BEP changes over all the printing presses to the new style star notes will be a thing of the past. I also think that currency is saved by individuals more frequently, why would you save 1k cents when you can just save a $100 bill, and is more easily saved without damaging it or it deteriorating from oxidization or tarnish. This increases the numbers of survivors in good condition.

The SPMC is a great site, whoever goes and checks it out should get on their email list, they put out an email once a week with links to articles and news one banknotes, including lists of upcoming shows throughout the U.S.

A radar serial number is one that reads the same forwards and backwards, period. That's it. To my knowledge a true, perfect, super, whatever you want to call it, has the same prefix and suffix/block letters for U.S. notes. Everything else is either a gimmick or just wrong. Just to clarify a repeater is a serial number that repeats in full, in order, and there must be at least two repeating numbers and the numbers must repeat at least twice. Traditional fancy serial numbers are well established, defined, and encompass a low number of notes. It seems that there are a lot of individuals making up fancy numbers, calling serial numbers consisting of only two digits that are not 0 and 1 binary is wrong, trinary notes are not considered fancy, calling notes with serial numbers under 1000 fancy is also wrong. People are trying to give numbers cutesy names and trying to make them something they are not, maybe it's a money grab, maybe ignorance, I don't know, but all this misrepresentation is causing confusion. Whether or not some of these new "fancy" numbers stick is yet to be seen.

It be nice if I could find a book as you describe for currency I collect, and it be in English.!. I think Q.D.Bowers wrote several books about U.S. currency that might be right up your alley, 100 Greatest American Currency Notes and the Whitman Encyclopedia of U.S. Paper Money might be ones to look into. I know that QDB wrote specialized books on Continental Currency and Obsolete Banknotes, I've been thinking about picking up his Obsolete Banknotes book but haven't pulled the trigger yet. I have not read any of these but they look like they might be a good fit for you. These are not in your wheelhouse necessarily, nor mine, but I will be picking up the Forging Secrets: Faces and Facts Inside the Nazi Operation Bernhard Scheme book soon (it's about the Nazi counterfeiting ring where they forged mainly English banknotes if I remember correctly), and good book on either the making of banknotes or one specifically focusing on the designing and engraving of a note. One more, I'll probably pick up one or more of the histories of De La Rue.

I saw a few with the Tokyo Bay postage cancelation stamp, I'm not sure how rare they are but a quick search yields a few examples, enough where you should be able to roughly estimate a price and get a feel for how readily available they are. Here is one that sold on HA in 2017, it's a $1 Hawaii note.

Nice note! It seems that PMG's definition of a Super Radar does reference that the prefix and suffix, block numbers, are part of or add to the serial number making if fancy, or fancier (super). It seems that a Super radar is the same as a True radar in PMG's world. Super Pedigrees This is when the serial number prefix makes the complete serial something different – something super. Any of the above pedigrees can qualify for the ‘super’ addition excluding Million Serial Number. The only requirement is that the prefix adds to the original serial number. There are two different scenarios where super fancy pedigrees come into play: The serial number is already fancy and the prefix adds to the pedigree making it super. The serial number isn’t fancy at all until the prefix is added – most commonly seen with radar serial numbers. Another exception is when the serial number can qualify for more than one special pedigree. Such as in the case where the serial number is A1A0000001: PMG will only notate serial number 1 for free. Yes, this is also a Super Binary-Radar-Rotator as well. The customer would need to request the super pedigree on the submission form for a $5 charge in order to have both pedigrees. Below are two different types of super fancy serial numbers. Try emailing PMG or asking this question in the ASK PMG section of the forum.

Is that your note?

There are some rare one's GF. Looks like for series 1928 notes Fr #'s 1603*, 1604* & 1605* are the one's to keep your eye out for and it seems that most from that series pull a modest premium. For 1934 & '35 SC's Fr # 1606*, 1606a, 1607m*, 1609, 1609*, 1610, & 1610* pull decent to big premiums in circulated condition. Doesn't look like there are any winners in the series 1957 SC group. Depends on what you have, I'd pick up a copy of Paper Money of the United states by Arthur and Ira Friedberg if you can, otherwise try to look up the Fr. #'s I gave you on HA or SB to see if you have any matches or post a few here and I'll look them up.

I stand corrected. Nice sleuthing.

You'd be surprised by the bickering of assigned grades and crack outs coming back with 5 point swings, it happens with notes but I agree to a lesser extent than with coins, probably because there are fewer note collectors, or at least fewer note collectors who send pieces to TPG's. I'm not as tough on borders, I'll take a decently centered note in better condition than a perfectly centered note in lesser condition, but that's me. Plenty of AU notes dripping with ink, sharp corners, good margins, and bright paper that would put a MS to shame if it was a beauty contest.