Hey Guys, I've been collecting coins for quite awhile and haven't been able to add much to my type collection lately, so I started thinking that it would be pretty cool to start add some currency to the type collection display. I basically have zero knowledge when it comes to currency, but I figured that my coin knowledge should carry over into making good decisions about condition and value. I went to a local auction earlier because I heard that they were going to have some coins. The coins ended up being of no interest to me, but they did have a random selection of old currency. They had some large-size and small-size notes, all of which were in pretty rough shape. The one exception was a 1928 $100 bill. I gave it a good lookover and could not find any imperfections that I felt were all that significant. There's a little brown spot below the M in America on the obverse and a faint brown linear stain visible on the left side of the reverse. I figured that it had to be at least AU. I had the most current Greensheet on my laptop (came with the Greysheet digital download), so I looked it up. The values listed are $170 for AU and $200 for CU 60. I ended up winning it with a $200 bid, which was a bit more than I was wanting to pay, but I was still pretty happy with it at the time. Here it is: So when I got home I was taking a closer look at it and realized that the white spaces on the left and right edges look a little thin. I took a $1 bill out of my wallet for comparison, and upon lining them up it was evident that the $100 is about 1.5 mm shorter than the $1 bill. Could the bill have been made this way, or does it mean that someone has recut the edge to hide some type of imperfection? If it has been cut, how does that affect the grade and/or value? Did I get totally hosed here or what? I suppose it would serve me right, it wouldn't be the first time that I've learned the "don't buy stuff that you don't know" lesson. Thanks in advance.
I think there was another thread on CT where someone was thinking their note was cut or fake because it wasn't exactly the same size as all the others they had. I think the answer was that some notes are cut a bit off. I'd wait for more answers.
its a nice looking note. but its hard to tell if it was trimmed or not. the spacing on the back looks pretty good. could you take another picture next to a different note? might make it a little easier to tell
Thanks for the responses. Here is a picture of the $100 bill on top of a $1 bill from my wallet, along with close-ups of each bottom corner. The two bills are exactly the same height, I offset them vertically to make the width difference easier to see.
@ Cherd: Welcome to CT and Welcome to Paper Money collecting. :thumb: I would like to suggest that if you feel the note were trimmed to carefully inspect the suspect edge under magnification and compare it to the other edges to see if the cut appears different in any way. However, I would not immediately suspect the note were altered to hide a defect as much as the alignment of cutting on the entire sheet may have been off, which would have effected all notes along that cut line. This is not uncommon but it can contribute to devaluing the note. Something worth pointing out to help you with grading and valuations, related to something that you have already noticed here, is centering of the printed areas of the note within the margins. Well centered notes are considered more perfect on the grading scale and this does effect the value as the note receives a higher grade. For some grading references check out PMG Notes and PCGS Currency grading standards on their respective web sites. I also recommend that rather than making photos of the note, that you start scanning your notes on a flatbed scanner. For example, it's really too hard to judge the problem you cite with this note because of the optical distortions the camera lens has affected the appearance of the shape of this note. While using a camera is fine for coins, a scanner is best used for flat paper objects. For banknote scanning, I recommend you set the scanner to 300 dpi and save your image file at 600 to 1000 pixels along the longest side. When scanning, place the note in the middle of the scan bed, away from the edge of the scanner, as scanners sometimes crop the white (lighter) margin areas of notes out during scanning. Also, be sure to place a dark sheet of paper behind the note while scanning. The dark paper will help define all the margins fully so its easy to see them against the background. A note on lingo, while coins have an obverse/reverse, notes have a face/back that we use to describe them. Likewise they are printed not minted, something that slips out from now and then as we get used to describing aspects of notes. I'm glad to know we have another Paper Money collector on the forum. I think your prior numismatic background did indeed serve you well to make a more informed decision and such a note is a great start! I'm sure that your prior knowledge will continue to help you if you continue to delve into paper money. One last thing to consider is that there is an enormous world of currency out there and many beautiful, colorful and alluring collectibles from other countries too. Be sure to check out foreign banknotes too! Regards. :smile
My thoughts are that the sheet was misaligned during production as the notes were being cut down to individual notes. Also, I would not compare the dimensions of modern notes printed features to the printed features dimensions of other Series.
Heh, thanks for the info, I didn't even think about the obverse/reverse thing. But while I was writing the opening post I actually used the word "mint", then figured that couldn't be right and change it to "when it was made". I hope you are right. I can handle having overpaid for something because I didn't educate myself well enough to estimate the grade correctly, I chalk that up to a learning experience. But, if someone knowingly altered the item to make it seem as though something that it was not, well, that's a bit harder to swallow. Learning experience either way I suppose.
I'll say that this is also a nice lower Serial Number for your first buy. It's not terribly high from a printage of some 542,400 for the Cleveland district notes. Lower numbers, those with more leading zeros, tend to lure collectors willing to pay a little more for a note. I believe that printage figure includes the star notes for Cleveland as well. For your reference, the Friedberg catalog number for this note is F-2150D. A web site with a lot of statistical information on notes ythat ou may like to bookmark is: USPaperMoney.info
