I've come up on this sheet of uncut dollar bills,and is it just me or are these serial numbers way off? Should'nt they follow each other from top to bottom?
With the modern numbering equipment, consecutive serial numbers don't come from the same sheet; they come from the same position of different sheets. That way, a whole pile of sheets can be put through a guillotine cutter, producing a bunch of piles of consecutive notes--with no need to sort the notes into consecutive order after they're cut. The serial numbers on a single sheet *will* increase progressively down each column, but generally in skips of several thousand at a time. Different printings use various different skip amounts, though; I've seen as little as 100 and as great as 100,000.
I noticed that the distance between the 4th,5th,and 6th numbers, (i.e. 164 and 194, 194 and 224, 224 and 254 are all 30 numbers apart. Anything to that?
Yes. The serial numbers are advancing by 3000 per position. That usually (but not always) tells us the size of the print run: this was probably a printing of 3000 sheets.
But how are they advancing 3000 per position when they are uncut and one above the other? They got to into some kind of order dont they? As in left to right,or top to bottom dont they?
They get in order when the finished sheets are stacked as explained in post 3. The numbers will run down the stack of sheets in each position.
@Numbers explained the serial numbering very eloquently. He mentioned that the bill orientation on the uncut sheet will perfectly align with the next sequential serial number with the bill on the NEXT uncut sheet. When 100 sheets are stacked vertically, the bill on the top sheet in the top left corner will be the first bill in the 100 bill sequence going to the bottom sheet. I just thought about this. You could possibly be unaware of the process in which the sheets are cut into individual bills. Each sheet is not cut as if a scissor or razor blade was run through them. I believe the bills are cut with hydraulic press that cuts vertically through 100 sheets at a time.