I have been a casual coin collector my whole life. Several years ago I inherited a bunch of coins from my grandfather and a great uncle. They've been sitting in a box in my closet all this time and I finally pulled it out recently to start sorting through everything so I can get the collection organized and cataloged. Tonight I reached into the box to pull out a roll of old nickels to start sorting through, but when I did I pulled out a $2 bill instead. It is a bill that someone gave me some years back and I just threw it in with the coin collection without much thought. When I took a closer look at it tonight, I noticed it had a star in the serial number. I don't know that it makes this bill any more valuable, but I do know this is supposed to indicate a replacment bill and that they are generally more rare. This bill is crisp, clean and in like new condition (uncirculated) because it has just been sitting in the box with the coins since the day it was handed to me. Can someone tell me if this thing is really worth holding onto? It is a 1976 series bill. I'll try to attach a scan of it to this post if I can figure out how to do that.
Congrats on the find. Yes, there are many star note collectors and they do carry a small premium. Of course in old notes, the premium is much greater. It is a nice find and definitely a keeper!
Thanks for the reply, bobbeth87. I think I will get a sleeve or protector for it and just hold onto it. If nothing else, it is an interesting addition to the collection. Can anyone tell me how I might find out just how rare or (gasp!) common this bill is? Is there some place online I can go and look up stats for particular US currency runs? Thanks to everyone here for all the great information you share with us noobs.
I agree with Bobbeth..it is an Altanta District $2 Note Aprox 1.28 million were printed. In Gem it is woth $20-$25...Looks like from the images a narrow top margin but still in really nice shape. The keys are the Minniapolis, Richmond and Kansas City Stars. It's a keeper. RickieB
An F note for 1976 had over 1.2 million printed. Its somewhat common (640K is considered rare (info I learned from here). http://www.uspapermoney.info/serials/f1976_b.html I recently sold a similar bill with a 640K printing for 20$, depending on the condition, it may be worth somewhat less. Rickie got there before me, and he is the expert.
Inquisitive; "Rickie got there before me, and he is the expert". Thanks for the compliment..but I am not an expert, just a collector of Banknotes, like you and most everyone else. RickieB
If you were to have the note graded it would deduct points for margins..It would mean the difference between (As an example) a 64 or 65 it may come back as a 63..due to the margins Please understand each company has their guidelines and grading is a "Subjective" opinion from the pro's. RickieB
Thanks for all of the additional info. Let me clarify the condition of the note. If you look at the scan I posted, both the top and left side margins appear narrow. That's not representative of the note itself. That's because, when I placed it in the corner of my flatbed scanner, those were the two margins that were on the edges of the scanner bed. I noticed the narrow margins in the image when I scanned it last night, but was too lazy to rescan it (if you knew how long it took me to figure out how to even get the scanner to work, you would understand why). The bill actually has a fairly uniform margin all the way around.
