Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="Numbers, post: 573301, member: 11668"]There's some confusion in terminology here.  A "block" is all the notes with the same prefix and suffix letters; in your example there are some notes from the B..A block and some from the B..B block.  A "print run" is the unit in which the BEP produces the notes; for 1990 $100's it's 3.2 million notes, so in your example there are seven print runs, namely run #31 of the B..A block and then runs #1-#6 of the B..B block. Some collectors try to get one note from each block (though not usually in the $100 denomination!); it's a challenge one level harder than collecting one note per district.  On the other hand, some collectors are perfectly satisfied with one note per *series*; to each his own. Essentially nobody tries to collect non-star notes by print run, because the number of print runs in a series is typically *very* large.  In the 2003A $1 series non-star notes, for example, there are 12 districts represented; or 87 blocks; or 96 groups (distinguishing all the DC/FW printings); or 1215 print runs.  That last number is pretty much completely unmanageable for a collection.... The only place where print runs really matter to (some) collectors is in the star notes.  The number of star runs per series is small enough that it's not ridiculous to attempt the collection; it's just a bit more challenging than one star per district.  And star runs also tend to come in varied lengths, rather than all being of the same standard size the way non-star runs are, so the collection is actually a bit interesting with some runs being tougher than others. Knowing about print runs can also be useful for proofreading purposes.  If the standard print run for 1976 $2's is 640,000 notes, then the number of notes printed for each district had better be a multiple of 640,000.  If your reference book says there were 8,448,000 $2's printed for Chicago in that series, you know you've got a typo on your hands...checking another book will show you that the correct number is 84,480,000, which might save you from overpaying for a common note. There's not much point to distinguishing notes printed in different months, as the top post in this thread was trying to do.  That 1990 $100 B..B block was in production from November 1992 to January 1993, but there's no way to know that unless you've got the monthly production reports handy; it seems odd to use it as the basis for a collection.  In contrast, different blocks, or DC/FW groups, (or even print runs or face plate numbers for that matter,) can be identified just by looking at the notes, so it's at least plausible that a collector might try to obtain *all* the different ones that he could possibly find.  The production figures are still nice to have (so that you can know in advance how tough your collection is going to be to finish, and so that you'll know it *is* finished when you get there), but in theory you could collect in such ways without any BEP data at all.[/QUOTE]

Log in or Sign up

Reply to Thread

Useful Searches