First, let me tell you all that I am an utter noob when it comes to paper money, and a slightly less utter noob when it comes to coinage. Walked into the bank by my home, asked for half dollars or anything "interesting". Guy said "I have a $1 silver certificate." I gave him 4 quarters, and I got it =D It has quite a bit of folds in it, and probably not worth too much. I know it is a series 1957A and in the bottom right corner it says D653. Now, that leads me to my question: I told my father in law about it and he showed me his $1 silver cert. It is definatly uncirculated. This thing looks like it never even saw the light of day it is so nice. He wanted me to ask you all what, if anything, it is worth. I will give you all the info on it, as best I can. Firstly, the note seems to be cut square. Now, the serial # reads V76875915A Series 1957 B Lower right corner, above the "1" it reads D779. Just to the lower left of the "T" in The United States of America on the obverse there is a D1. Seems to be signed Katheryn O'hay Gr...something Treasurer of the United States and C. Douglas Dillon Secretary of the Treasury. The reverse looks like a standard One Dollar Note, I don't see anything out of place, but then again I really don't know what to look for. Thank you for all your help! I will try and get some pics up of my note, and possibly my father in law's if he allows it. I really don' want to scan it, and my camera sucks but I will see what I can do =D Thanks! --Rob.
I would love to walk into a bank and get a silver certificate for 4 quarters. I don't care what condition it's in.
Congratulations on your Silver Certificate. Your father-in-law's '57B is the last printing of the $1 Silver Certificate before the change to the modern day $1 Federal Reserve Note that started in 1963 and it still used today. The 1935H SC, 1957B SC and 1963 FRN were all being put into circulation at approx. the same time. Uncirculated examples are plentiful and can be picked up for $10-$15, and star notes are about double to triple that. The change from the SC to the FRN also moved the star from the beginning of the serial number to the end.
Thanks for all of your input, Steve! We both really appreciated what you had to tell us =D As I said, I am not much of a paper money guy, and don't know what to look for, but I hope I can post in this forum more =D. --Rob!
fyi: Her name is Kathryn O'Hay Granahan for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_E._Granahan
A couple of tidbits about silver certificates: The last year they could be redeemed for silver was 1968. And in the waning days, they could only be redeemed at Federal Reserve Bank branches. So, if you made the effort to take your silver certificates to a FRB branch for redemption at that time, what would you have gotten? Silver granules. I guess the idea behind that was to give the holder exactly $1.00 (or whatever amount) worth of silver based on the market price on the day the certificate was redeemed. For example, if the price were $1.29, that would equal .7752 ounce for each dollar. If the price were $1.50, it would be .6667 ounce, and so on. The only problem with the granules was, you couldn't really sell the darn things because there was no practical way to verify their fineness.
Hey all! I just got 3 more $1 Silver Certificates today! I posted this in the roll-searchers thread, as that is what I was doing when I came across these fine pieces of paper! The teller, who is a friendly aquaintance of mine, said "Today is your lucky day bud!" and he offered the 3 for $3. Apparently he was switching branches, and had to empty out his cash tank, or what not. 2 of these notes were STAR NOTES!! All from series 1957. I really don't know paper money grading, but these are better than my first certificate for sure. One of the star notes is actually the best condition one that I have (out of all 4 I have been lucky enough to stumble upon.) What kind of information would you need from the note that would indicate any kind of rarity? I can scan the certificates to show any wear tommorrow, or wednesday. Tired now and about to hit the sack. Thanks all! --Rob.
OK now where is that Youtube video showing a couple guys trying to cash in a $10 Gold Cert at a federal reserve bank! They basically got turned away, almost like it wasn't the first time it's been done. I tell you what - A fair amount of certs where shredded on those closing days in the late 60's (One Florida Dealer cashed in alone something on the order of 20-40,000 in Silver Certs), for a chance at scoring some Carson City Morgans! It was a gamble, unless you know someone who would let you burn a peep hole in a bag of Morgans and take a look-see. While Certs prices increased in those days, many rear Morgans went south a few thousand percent! There was even folks running to the banks, than boarding a plane to try to cash in oversees before the news of hordes of rear Morgans were being handed out at face value reached Europe! Many oversees dealer got burned something wicked during those weeks!!! BTW: I picked up four UNC consecutive 57B for 36 bucks, so they are not to expensive in raw form. They're quite a bit cheaper than the higher denomination silver certs of the same time period.
