I was so excited to find one of these at one of my local coin shows, but when I got home and went to put it in a better holder, I realized that it appeared to be splitting along the edge. Is it even physically possible to fake something like this or am I just being paranoid? Nothing else about it seems amiss, so I'm inclined to think (and certainly hope) it's just wear and tear but I know there are a lot of fakes/alterations out there.
I believe I’ve seen this before. Note is in terrible shape. I know inverted backs are a popular error, but I might have waited for a nicer example.
I've seen one other note like this years ago. Yours is in terrible shape. You should have waited for a better one. If you can split the entire note then will will have a two fer. One half will have the front of the bill and the other half the back. LOL Please don't try this, the bill has suffered enough.
Given the paper splitting issue and the note's overall poor condition, I am inclined to believe that you may have a contemporary forgery and alteration. Say someone in the late 1950's thinned off the sides of the front and backs of two $1 notes, inverted one side, glued them together and aged them so the front and back sides would look similar in terms of wear. Now 60 years later after the deed was done, the adhesive used is drying up and the two halves are starting to separate after their long union together. So, if the note is in fact a forgery the note has some novelty value at the very least as contemporary forgeries such as these (if this is in fact what it is) don't turn up everyday or anything.
To me, it looks suspiciously like someone split the note and reattached it and as NOS says, the adhesive is giving up due to age. I hope you didn't pay much for it.
Fortunately I didn't pay that much for it. I will have it looked at by someone in person the next time I go to a coin show. That sounds like an awful lot of trouble to go through to make a fake error, but I guess people will do anything. Thanks for the opinions.
It is by today's standards but it's important to look at this through context. Today people are used to putting minimal effort into such kinds of dubious endeavors due to scanners, copiers and Photoshop-type programs. Well, back in the day there were no fancy computers to use or anything like that so would-be forgers would have to be fairly dedicated and skilled if they wanted to pull one over on people. Viewing the likely forgery or alteration through this lens makes the note all the more interesting when one thinks about it.
Possibly silly thought, but if its 2 bills wouldn't you be able to see that by shining a light through it? Or weighing it vs a normal bill?
I don't think it's 2 bills if it was peeled apart and the reverse glued back on upside down. So it would weigh the same. 1 gram. I didn't think about it being separated until I read the other post. (Mountain)
I know notes used to be able to be split. I've seen it done. And if I know then there are others that know also. So someone could have split the note, reversed the orientation of the back, and put it back together. I STRONGLY suspect it's an altered item.
I have an older cousin who used to spend hours doing stupid things like filing a penny down in order to get a 10 cent pop. He spent hours/days splitting a $1 and $10 dollar bill in order to paste them together to have $20. Not sure what he did with them. I think he came from the other side of the family.
