Book value is $20 on an uncirculated 63 grade star note. Four consecutive would have a higher premium, perhaps $35 each if sold as the complete set. There were 1,280,000 star notes printed for this particular issuing bank.
1976 $2 Star notes are fickle. Some of the short run stars (E*, I*, and J*) sell for 50 to 100 times face, especially in the higher grades, 66,67,68. The St.Louis star (H*) was printed in two different 640,000 runs. The first run H00000001* - H00640000* was printed with COPE production serials, and the second run H00640001* - H01280000* was conventional. I personally don't believe consecutive serials add that much to their value, since some notes were distributed in packs of 100. Checking past auction prices, you can find pairs of consecutive 1976 St.Louis star notes selling for as little as $12.00 per pair. Low serials, fancy serials, notes with "First Day" issue stamps and higher graded notes, (in TPG holders) tend to price higher. How or where did you get these ?
I used to just randomly collect old coins and bills when I was younger (24 now) so I guess I bought them when I was 10ish or so. Other than being way miscut they are actually in great condition.
Both runs have conventional serials--there are no COPE stars in the 1976 $2's. The last 1976 $2 stars were printed in January 1977, and COPE wasn't used to print star notes before November 1978.
Thank you. I was using Robert Azpiazu's Collectors Guide as a reference. His guide shows the 1976 $2 E*, F*, G*, H*, J*, K*, and L* all as having COPE serials. I'll shoot him an email and get this fixed before the next edition.
Not really a currency guy but reading this thread made me think of my 1993/94 Jefferson Coinage & Currency Sets (I have over 50 sets of these) which came with the crisp 1976 $2 bill. In looking at my sets, some of them have star notes. All of the notes from these sets are from Philadelphia (C) and all of the star notes are six digit serial numbers (00******). Are the normal crisp $2 bills from these sets worth any premium? What about the star notes? I guessing I should just cut them out and spend either?
The printed quantity is the same as the St Louis star's, 1,280,000. Book on these is $15 in a comparable MS63 grade. Neither have a high collector value.
Not really my area, but IIRC, the sets with the star notes are scarce. If you have several of them in a batch of 50, you're lucky....
Checked my copy of Azpiazu, and *wow* are there a lot of typos in the COPE/conventional listings for the 1976 $2's. Try this listing instead.
I typically consult at least two sources before I "spout off" about notes, and your website normally is my first stop. This time, I happened to have Bob's guide sitting on my desk, opened it up to 1976 $2 notes, and now I have learned my lesson. I'll know next time not to be so hasty.
- These sets have a higher premium due to the limited number of star notes that were released with them! Personally I would not break these sets up unless there was a realllly good reason. BTW: I am jealous, 50 sets of those wonderful satin nickels - sweet!
Thanks for the info guys, there isn't a really good reason to break up the sets except for silver being so high to cash in the dollar and then pulling the nickels to submit for certification since most look perfect to me. Sure, most will grade MS69, but there's a chance to hit the jackpot with an MS70 too I will consider what you guys are saying though and probably not break up the sets with the star notes as I agree that the seem to be much harder to find. For fun I went through all of my other sets and put them in order by serial number and discovered that I have two of the Jefferson Coin & Currency Sets where the $2 bills have consecutive serial numbers!! (I'll likely not break those two sets up either) Not the star note ones though, just the regular crisp $2 bills. Thought that was pretty neat. Must have either gotten very lucky or I bought those from someone who happened to buy two during the original release. Not sure if they originally sent out consecutive numbers when they were on sale 17 years ago though!
Just thought I'd give an update for anyone interested. In the past few years or so I've purchased 70 sets of the 1993 Jefferson Coinage and Currency Set. Of those 70 sets, I discovered that 14 sets included a $2 star note. I looked over all of the notes for fancy serial numbers and didn't see anything special. I did find that I have two sets of the regular C-A block $2 bills that have consecutive serial numbers. I also found that two of the sets with star notes also have consecutive serial numbers. Of the star notes the lowest serial number was: C00031846* Of the star notes the highest serial number was: C00626597* Of the non-star notes the lowest serial number was: C21413159A Of the non-star notes the highest serial number was: C24584192A I recently broke up 50 of the 70 sets in order to get to the 1994-P Matte Proof Jefferson Nickels which I sent in for certification. As recommended, I tried to stay away from cutting up the sets with star notes, but I ended up cutting 7 of them because the nickels were just too pretty and mark free. I didn't mess with the either of the sets with consecutive serial numbers though. When I cut them up, I kept the full back panel of the set intact that holds the crisp uncirculated $2 bill. It actually makes a nice little presentation holder like that I think. Not sure what I'm going to do with all of these notes in these holders... I already looked into certification and that just seems too expensive and likely not worthwhile. But I can't bring myself to cut the notes out and spend them either!!!! I'll figure it out I'm sure...
I should know by the end of this month, PCGS is pretty slow on the coin submissions lately, keeping my fingers crossed though
