While strap searching tonight I found about half a strap of older (unusual for me to find this much in a strap) crisp paper, but unfortunately no stars in there. I was wondering if the fed found a couple dusty straps and threw them into circulation or if someone found someone's shoebox and bought a carton of smokes with them... A little more than half with some wave and less than half CU, some sequential. 4-E 1981, 2-E 1-H 1981A, 8-B 1-D 5-E 1-J 1-K 1985, 2-B 1-D 3-E 2-F 1-K 2-L 1988A, 1-E 1-F 8-K 1-L 2003A, 1-B 2-E 3-F 2006. I know about web notes and the years and serials for them, but is there anything that could be special to any of these series that I should research? I would like to keep all of them, but I'm trying not to be a hoarder and just hold onto what's worth holding onto.
I'm a sucker for thone kind of finds. Same with star notes, I just love finding them so I can't help but keep them.
I would trade those back through the system and see if you can find some short run notes or stars, it always something interesting to be sure
I did find B* F* and my first L* of 2013 series in another strap. I was surprised to find one from San Fran in such good shape on the east coast. I keep all stars and my best from circ so far is a 2009 B* with only one fold. I'll prob pick the lowest serials, one from each fed and series and put them in the binder. The rest I may try to get $3-4 for (the coinworld paper money pricing guide says they are worth 4.50) and send the newer ones back into the wild. Decisions decisions haha.
Is there a standard for short run (like under 1mil) or is it just relative to the average of the rest of the runs?
The practical person in me says spend, but they are cool. I lucked into about $150 of 1963-1977A dollars (heavy on the 63 and 63A) at the credit union about 2 years ago. Most were Crisp AU+ with some CU along with stars and high S/N. Saved about 25 of the best, sold about 25 more and spent the rest that I couldn't sell. While it was a nice find, the value of these notes are not that high, and unlikely to ever go up significantly in value in the future. IMO, I would look at what you could buy with that money. Setting aside 25 or 50 might not be a problem if it doesn't mess with your budget, but I wouldn't hoard them. In the 70's my grandparents used to save the series of 1934 $5-20 FRNs and give them to me as birthday gifts. Most were worn. At the time I had enough for an XF+ 1909-SVDB cent, but didn't want to spend the old notes. In 1995, I finally bought an XF SVDB using the notes but only had enough to pay for half of it. Bottom line is that I should have spent the old, low collector value notes on the coin 20 years earlier. The coin I wanted went up in price, while the "cool" old notes did not. Just relating my story on why I believe it's better to buy something that you want for your collection instead of hoarding low value or "almost fancy" S/N. If you want to save them because you like them, fine. If you want to save them because you think they will go up in value? Don't IMO
