Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Numbers, post: 855543, member: 11668&quot;]I collect a few things, but they&#039;re pretty much all related to my attempts to work out and/or verify the serial number data.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>For example, I&#039;ve got a long-term project of trying to reconstruct the gaps in the serial numbering of the 18- and 32-subject silver certificate star notes.&nbsp; Leaving out the technical explanations, we know how many gaps exist in each series, how long the gaps are, and where they can fall (always at the start of a print run).&nbsp; So theoretically, it&#039;s possible to identify the gaps by process of elimination: just check off all the runs that *don&#039;t* have gaps, by finding a note from each one, and what&#039;s left are the runs with the gaps.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Unfortunately, the total number of print runs is often quite large (several hundred per series in some cases).&nbsp; I don&#039;t believe I could record that much data without making a single typo, and of course one typo is enough to completely wreck a process-of-elimination analysis.&nbsp; So I&#039;ve been trying to actually *collect* one star note from the relevant range of each print run, to make a reference set.&nbsp; I&#039;ve got close to 600 carefully selected $1 SC stars so far, and that&#039;s not even a third of the total I&#039;ll eventually need....&nbsp; But it&#039;s already getting rather tough to find notes that advance the project, because I&#039;ve already got most of the easy ones, so quite a lot of the notes I look at now fall into runs I&#039;ve already got.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Building a set like this puts me into a rather nonstandard collecting mindset.&nbsp; For one thing, a VF note and a Gem CU note will serve my purposes equally well, but the VF is a whole lot cheaper (and a VG with graffiti is cheaper still).&nbsp; So I frequently find myself turning down high-grade notes, if they&#039;re from runs that are common enough that I think I can find a lower-grade example later (or if they&#039;re from series that are just too expensive in CU).&nbsp; For another thing, I have to hunt down all of the notes personally--I can&#039;t just call up a dealer and ask whether he&#039;s got a 1935F $1 star note from run #261, because nobody sorts notes that way, because nobody except me collects like this!</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Fortunately, I&#039;m the right sort of crazy that this kind of thing appeals to me.&nbsp; Unfortunately, most other collectors are a different sort of crazy than I am, so they don&#039;t tend to &quot;get&quot; it.&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie11" alt=":rolleyes:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>(But if this kind of project actually sounds like fun to you, then the FRN stars from 1950A through 1974 still need to be worked on.&nbsp; I&#039;ve recorded some data on them, but I&#039;ve never even tried to start a collection because of the expense involved....)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in