So I drop by the bank today to pick up my order of $1400 of new $2 bills so I can sell the packs on eBay...something I do to keep busy in retirement. I always wish I'd get packs of star notes but that never happens. The last order had nothing in them of interest and one pack of mixed new and used which I took back to the bank after checking them for anything interesting. I get home and just fan through one pack and WHOA, I see a star note!! I am a happy camper but it ruins the pack...lol!! No consecutive numbers. These are all New York packs, B serial numbers. Fanning more I come to realize that each pack has 5 star notes at the very end of the pack....4 replacing the last 4 numbers and one around number 93 in the packs. They all turn out to be San Francisco stars with 128,000 mintage showing quite rare on the star note website. Interestingly, they are all ending 80 through 84 stars.
Hi Nice Find! Did you look at the Letters & numbers at the top left hand side? If you do, you will notice that they all came from the "E, F, G, & H" positions of the sheets (I cannot make our the numbers)... These seem to be COPE printings and not the new LEPE sheets (I could be wrong here)... Comment?
All 80-84 stars is interesting. What's that website you're looking at to get the well dope on these? I'd think I'd want to bookmark it for future reference.
Of course, this lucky jackpot just happened to happen on the day I took the staff at the bank a pound of See's nuts and chews for Christmas!! Gotta keep up the good will. I already have another order in for next Wednesday delivery to see if I get lucky again.
Now, do I send some of them in to PMG for grading? I wish they were cut a little better on the front. The backs are just about perfect. And if I sent say 5 in for grading, do I pick the lowest number or ones that might be cut a little better, although the obverse is about the same on all of them.
Hey, I would be interested in a complete set of these notes. How much would you sell me each note ending in the number "80"? PM please
Nice find @keemao . I rarely send in modern stars for grading. My general rule of thumb I use for grading notes is, does the note need authentication, and what is the value of the note. Your $2's do not need authentication (they look real) , and unfortunately they do not meet my threshold of value. My minimum is $200 in value, and lately I've bumped that up to $500. The OP's notes look pack fresh, but are a little skinny on the left side margin. I would guess they would garnish a 63EPQ or 64EPQ at best. Very nice find. @keemao , I sent you a PM
Yes, the front of the notes are not cut the best. And yes, they are super crisp and you can feel a lot of the printing on them, especially the numbers and seals. I would send a few in and keep the highest graded one to put into my stash of graded notes.
Other way around. If they were COPE, *all* of them would have the same plate position. But with LEPE, the position changes every 100 serials, so we get a bunch of different positions represented within a span of less than 700 serials. (And we also get a bunch of consecutive straps that all have stars inserted in the same places, which wasn't the way COPE worked.) This confirms that L..* run 1 was a LEPE printing, and in fact the first LEPE $2 printing. In the long term, these stars are likely to be scarce in CU condition, since (a) they won't come out in full straps like L..* run 2 will, and (b) they won't predictably appear in place of xxxx9999 and xxxx0000 serials, the way COPE sheet-replacement stars do. So, definitely a good find!
