Where do you "cash in" U.S. Savings Bonds?

Because they changed the design in '46?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

It's an error bond: missing the 'R' from the red war bond legend printed along the bottom.

<<Because they changed the design in '46?>>

What do you mean?

 

Anyone get it yet?

 

The Red Seal is misplaced and the R in war is missing?

 

Because it's not cancelled! There, I think one of mine is right, but I've been wrong before.

 

That is the correct answer. It is the only known example of a printing error on a WWII era bond.

It is not mine but belongs to a good friend. He is a long-time collector and vestpocket dealer. It was in a group of material he purchased at Memphis. There was a local show coming up and I was going through the stuff he was going to put out at his table at the show. This was in that group and I asked him what he wanted for it. He told me the price and I told him that it was nowhere near enough. He looked at me quizzically and asked why I thought it should be priced higher. It was apparent he never really looked at it. When I pointed out the error he removed it from the stuff for the show.

Bonds were issued in a different manner than paper money circulates. Every bond had to have the name and address added to it by the issuing agent. Issuing agents were instructed not to issue bonds with printing errors but to return them to the Treasury. The interesting thing about this one is that it was tagged as an error by the BEP. That is the significance of the red crayon mark on the top half. Someone at BEP must have decided it was not significant enough to replace. This decision was likely based on the manner of printing replacements for WWII bonds.

Unlike the star replacement system used for paper money, replacement bonds had to be reprinted with the same serial number for accounting purposes and because the Hollerith data card that accompanied the bond and was returned to Treasury by the issuing agent already had a serial number on it and that number had to match its corresponding bond. The numbering wheels for the replacements had to be set by hand which was time-consuming.

While this was intitially tagged by QC at the BEP as an error, it must have been determined that this was not enough of an error to require replacing probably due to the cumbersome process of printing replacements given the minor nature of the error.

Jensenbay, please PM me with your address and your prize will be on its way.

 

Check eBay. Most are not cancelled and don't go for over $50.

 

Good information, all I have is a deck of cards. lol

 

I won something... cool. PM sent.

 

Congrats!!!!