Been a while figured Id post something random. How many new collectors run into this note and assume its a star note, I know when i saw this note raw and ungraded I thought I had a homerun. Alas, they all have stars eh?
Yes, those are frequently mistaken for star replacement notes. Sometimes dealers even advertise them as such--one hopes this is done out of ignorance rather than as a deliberate deception. For the record: All Series 1869 USNs and all Series 1890 and 1891 Treasury/Coin Notes have this solid star as the serial suffix. The use of a star to designate replacement notes didn't come along until 1910 (though of course it occurs on many notes with series dates before 1910, since some series remained in production for many years). A wide variety of symbols occurred as serial suffixes (and occasionally prefixes) on large-size notes--see here for more information on these.
It also looks like the designer/engraver didn't plan ahead and allow enough room for the complete serial number to fit in the space provided. (lower left side)
That's not uncommon with some of the larger issues. Back then, they did not use leading zeroes, so there wasn't a fixed width for the serial numbers. As more and more notes were produced, the serial number expanded. Check out these two 1917 $2's. Unfortunately the issue is that the star, in the star note is not very visible.
Great note..Congrats!! Quite a few years ago I recall posting a write up on all the symbols used to terminate the Serial Numbers..what a cool research that was...Ahhhh just an after thought when reading this Thread.. RickieB
I wish I could get a copy of it. It's this type of thing that isn't common knowledge. The effort to pull the information out of various reference materials and condense it into one report, is only pursued by a very few. I wouldn't know where to begin. Is it still around in CoinTalks archive's? I never get that search feature to work properly for me. :>(
I'll have to go through his posts more and find it. I went back through a few pages and didn't see anything. I'm going to the Central States Numismatic Show tomorrow and need to call it a day. I'm hoping to find that one note we discussed.
Good luck. Be aggressive off the bat to scare off the "maybe" buyers who'll only drive the price up. Numbers' link is in this thread.
There were many buyers in competition for my 1928 series. Alas, I'll have to try again. VG and F grades were selling in the high $1,500 to $2,000 range. To show you how unpredictable the auction was, a 10,000 Yuan note from China sold for $199,750. Heritage valued it pre-auction at $8,000 to $10,000. This was not the only note that went out of sight. Another foreign note valued at $7,000 to $8,000 went for $64,000. There were so many bids and different buyers, at one point, the Auctioneer had to take a time out to figure where the bids were actually at.
There were about 25 notes in various grades. I was focused on the XF ones. If it appeared to have a noticeable fold, I did not bid. They sold in the $2,200 to $2800 range and AU's in the upper twenties low thirties. The one at $2,200 was in my range but it had a paper wave that stopped me from bidding further. There were only two Gems like yours. If I remember correctly, they sold at $6,000 to $8,000. I didn't write down every price realized. Only those that had my interest. Most sold to floor bidders from this batch, basically three dealers. I say they were dealers because they were buying up a lot of notes. Several in duplicate grades. I think only two went to internet bidders. However, I did relieve my sorrow by going on the bourse and buying a coin I needed.
