After cashing hundred's of dollars for exchange in the banks I have not found a * STAR * note in over five years. Is it because more collectors are searching for them or have the banks devised a machine that kicks them out automatically for special customers or their own stash ? Dave
I run a teller drawer every day and I rarely see them. There is no secret stash. No one really pays attention to them. If I see one, I look at the serial number. If it's not a good number, I give them out.
Star notes are issued in limited quantities to replace notes that are made in error at the BEP and which were destroyed there. Most of the older notes have either been found or recalled for destruction do to their unusable condition for commerce. So, unless someone spends one accidentally from a collection or such, they can be few and far between.
I received $20,000 in brand new $100 sequential star notes early last year. No special serial numbers and the novelty of the new bills had already worn off, so I gave them all out at the teller line.
Oh noooo! Should have checked for radars, repeaters, special numbers, etc. There is a guy in Numismatic News who advertises for #25's and pays a nice premium.
I did check for special serial numbers. Each pack shows the start and end number, and you can tell right then whether there are any good numbers or not.
Keep looking, sometimes you get lucky. I found a few so far since I started noticing them, if they're not too special I end up spending them when I'm low on cash. And just the other day a family member had a new 50 and semi-new 100 star note. Wish I could have kept them, but I'm not rich.
I used to have newer "star" dollars but found out they buy beer just as well as regular dollars. My only "star" I saved because it is older.
I was actively looking for $1 star notes a couple years ago. I kept records of how many straps I searched and how many * notes I found. For $1 bills I averaged one every $217 searched, I found 26 from $5,657.
I search a sizable amount daily and religiously. I find common run stars almost everyday. I used to find a lot more of the 2003A and 2006 series $1 short run stars well before the $1 2009 Series began. I probably average between 2-5 short run modern stars monthly. After searching for as long as i have it's very obvious by the amount of short runs I've found which were issued as sheet notes and the runs that were issued as pairs. Even though a print run may have only a run of 640k I'll always find more from that run issued as from a sheet then in the form of pairs. The extremely scarce and hard to find '09 $1 San Francisco Star is very elusive. I've only found 9 since issued and 7 of the scarce '09 $1 H*. It takes a lot of patience's and notes to look through to get lucky.
Love the 00770077! Cool as hell!! If that makes sense - would win plenty of "liars poker" games with that one!!!
After a certain period of time I stopped looking for them. I had found enough to satisfy my interest. I even tried to sell a few of the new sequential $100's but had no takers (2003A and 2006A series). So I saved a couple and spent the rest. I found an abundant amount of stars within the first 6 to 8 months of the new bill's release. The true radars and repeaters are much harder to find, even without stars.
I have gone through a boat load of star notes when I was working as a toll collector. I now am retired for 12 years and I still see star notes once in a while. They are there but you must look for them. I have even put a bunch on Where's George.
