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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Numbers, post: 640629, member: 11668&quot;]&quot;Wrong&quot; is definitely the wrong word to use in this context.&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie6" alt=":cool:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Small-size back plates have never been classified by currency type--there is no such thing as a &quot;silver certificate back plate&quot;.&nbsp; If you go back to the &#039;50s series, you can find $5 FRNs, SCs, and USNs all with the same back plate number.&nbsp; (And if you go back to the &#039;28 and &#039;29 series, you can add Nationals and FRBNs to the list.)&nbsp; But for some reason, when it comes to the 1957B $1 SCs and 1963 $1 FRNs, people have gotten the idea that this is some kind of mistake.</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s probably best to reserve the term &quot;mule&quot; for cases in which there was actually some change to the back plates (a new location or size of the plate numbers, as your quote mentions, or a new numbering sequence in the series from 1977A to present).&nbsp; In 1963, no such thing happened: the back plates didn&#039;t change at all, and the back plate numbers just kept right on counting.&nbsp; The fact that 1957B and 1963 $1&#039;s can be found with identical back plate numbers is interesting, and I&#039;m not criticizing anyone for wanting to collect such things, but calling them &quot;mules&quot; is just confusing.</p><p><br /></p><p>(By the way, it&#039;s also possible to find pairs of 1963 and 1963A $1&#039;s, or pairs of 1957A and 1957B $1&#039;s, printed with the same *face* plate.&nbsp; The series designation and signatures were overprinted during that era, rather than engraved in the plates, so even the face plates weren&#039;t assigned to a specific series, only to a specific type.&nbsp; Far fewer people are aware of the shared face plate numbers than the shared back plate numbers; this is one reason why I don&#039;t like the confusing &quot;mule&quot; terminology here, as it obscures what&#039;s really going on.)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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