Bottom left serial is fully ghosted to the northwest. Heaviest on the E748.. and the black 5 below. Any solid answer on what causes this?
It's the first bill of a strap (serial ending in 01), so when the paper band was wrapped around the strap immediately after printing and cutting, it rubbed against that note while the ink was still slightly wet. Various smudges and ghosts of the overprint are pretty common on notes with serials ending in 01, and especially those ending in 001 (since the latter come into contact with the plastic shrinkwrap on the 1000-note bundle, as well as the paper band on the 100-note strap).
