I put this bill in the back of a photo frame, when I put it in there it had a mark from an invisible pen. Got it in change from a Mom and Pops store years ago.
A little skinny on the lower margin, but otherwise a nice looking Priest/Humphrey Ace. These were printed and distributed 1953 through 1957 to the tune of over 5 Billion notes. Very cool circulation find.
Sweet rediscovery!! I love those old Silver Certificates. It looks to still be in pretty good condition.
They are higher than I’m used to seeing, by a large amount. This quote from uspapermoney.info explains why: “The face plate number identifies the particular printing plate which was used to print the face side of a note. Similarly, the back plate number identifies the plate used for the back side of the note. In recent years, the numbering of printing plates has started over from #1 in each new series, so the plate numbers rarely get higher than a few hundred. Formerly, however, the practice was to number the plates sequentially across many series, so that four-digit plate numbers were not uncommon.” Here are yours.
Thanks @Milesofwho I guess with over 5 billion printed these numbers could go pretty high? How many were in each sheet. and how often did the plate number change?
Then we might have had a thread about someone "finding this at the Good Will". I'm glad that was not the case for you. My local shop had a 16 note uncut sheet of these a while back. I wish I had had the money to buy it. It would have looked so good in a frame on my wall.
U.S. currency was printed as 18-note sheets into the 1960's wherein the BEP gradually upgraded to printing them as 32-note sheets. While the lengthy transition took place, both 18 and 32-note sheets were printed at the same time. This is why 18-subject notes dating to 1950E were printed as late as 1968 and were issued alongside considerably more common 32-subject sheet Series 1963A notes. You can read more about sheets here: http://www.uspapermoney.info/general/note.html. Plate numbers historically reset with a major design change. There were exceptions, however. Series 1957 $1 notes started with reset plate numbers front and back. While the front plate numbers reset on $1 1963 notes, the BEP continued off from the back plate numbers of 1957B silver certificates. Essentially, the BEP continued off from the same $1 back plate numbers from Series 1957 until Series 1977A before deciding to reset them with every Series-date change beginning in 1981 (of which, Series 1981 $1 notes can be found with a mixture of reset back plate numbers and those that go up into the early 3000s as mules). Similar plate numbering resets can be found with higher denominations up into the early 1980's but none are nearly as apparent as with $1 notes. When I go through a stack of ones, I will align them upright from the back and in so doing I will quickly glance at each back plate number. While it doesn't happen too often, when I find one that is four digits, I immediately know that I've found one that is more than 35 years old without even having yet looked at the front.