Forgery or Printing Error?

Hello all, I saw @Mountain Man 's earlier post with the links about currency errors and it got me wondering about this $5 bill I've had for about 30 years. At 1st I thought it was an error, then I decided it was a forgery. SO, what do you think? Is it an error, or is it a forgery?
I await your judgement.
Jim

 

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Not sure, but could be an alinement note on a sheet that was to be destroyed later. I was a printer once and we sometimes did some alinements to our vertical lift press to make sure of its position, before the regular runs. Today, I really do not know how they do most of the numbers and seals. I do know, that the numbering units, have to index to the next number.

 

How do you have a bill like that for 30 years without having it checked??? Its beautiful.

 

Looks like a legit printing error.

But what the heck is that on the corner?

 

Interesting. It’s missing 95% of the green overprint. All of the components of the black overprint are there.

 

I don't know, I just always assumed it was a forgery, and had it in with my currency, and hadn't thought about it in years, until I saw the website with the errors.

 

I'm guessing someone who counted money at some business did that to note they were the ones who counted it.

 

Thanks Steve.

 

Looks like a legitimate inking error. Under/missing ink during third printing. However it could also be an altered note where most of the serial number and seal have been removed. I can’t tell from the picture. The area where the seal would be looks clean and sharp (hard to do if altering the note). So I think inking error is more likely. A keeper in my book. With the writing on the bill and overall condition I don’t think there is a huge premium, but there is a premium to error note collectors.

 

Thanks Magic Man!!
I'm mot interested in selling, but for my inventory (from the picture) do you have any idea how much it might be worth?

 

Rather than me taking an educated guess, I suggest you search eBay for similar items (use advanced search and choose "sold" listings). I collect mostly star errors. They bring a higher price than "standard" blocks. Who knows, the one you show may be a star note...no way to tell!

 

Looks like a nice minting error to me. It's a shame someone wrote on the bill in the upper left corner on the front.

 

Fake, in my opinion. Without even enlarging, I can see remnants of the serial number having been removed. Probably bleached out. Under a microscope you should be able to see the green ink residue where it was removed. I can still make out some of the digits.

 

Here is one that I returned and was refunded. It was labeled as missing the third printing.

The ink was chemically removed AFTER it left BEP.

 

Thanks everyone! Real, forged or altered really doesn't matter to me. It will stay in my collection as an oddity and a conversation piece. I have that and a, very badly, copied (it's so bad, I really don't think I can call it forged) $20 in my currency book for my heirs to figure out what's up.

 

The note would be worth more as no third printing (no green at all) than as missing ink. I wonder why the one digit was not also bleached. Usually when the ink has been chemically removed the black ink where the treasury seal would have been is also affected. The OP’s bill still has very sharp black printing. I can’t see the green ink Mountain Man sees, but that’s just my eyes I guess.

 

My question is, why would someone bleach the #s off a note?
I'll break my loupe out to see if I can see the bleached out #s and let everyone know.

 

People remove (both chemically and physically) the serial numbers and treasury seal off a note to sell it at a premium as an error note. There are numerous ways notes can be altered to look like real errors.

 

As I said earlier. When setting up any printing press machine, you have to aline the paper to the plates, if not you got problems.

 

Should have figured that. I'll take a closer look tonight and see if there are #s there.