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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Numbers, post: 1326304, member: 11668&quot;]It&#039;s...complicated.</p><p><br /></p><p>When the BEP prints sheets especially for collector sales, they generally use very high serials, above the maximum number printed for circulation.&nbsp; (Today the circulation printings go up 96000000 for most denominations, so the sheets use serials above that number).</p><p><br /></p><p>However, not all of the uncut sheets sold to the public were printed especially for that purpose.&nbsp; Some of them, with star serial numbers, were printed to be used as replacement sheets, the way star notes are usually used in production.&nbsp; The sheets were then diverted for public sales instead.&nbsp; These sheets don&#039;t have high serial numbers--indeed, they usually have fairly low serials, as serial numbers on star notes don&#039;t often get all that high.&nbsp; These star sheets are always sold in 16-subject format or smaller, since that&#039;s the way the replacement sheets are printed and stored at the BEP.&nbsp; (In regular production, the sheets are cut in half before the serial numbers are ever printed on them; the only 32-subject sheets with serials on them are the ones printed especially for collectors using a different overprinting press.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Far the largest batch of star sheets sold this way were the 1976 $2 sheets.&nbsp; When the BEP started printing $2 FRNs, their intention was to make them a common part of our circulating currency, replacing perhaps half of the $1 production by an equal dollar value of $2&#039;s.&nbsp; So they began by printing relatively large quantities of 1976 $2 star notes.&nbsp; Of course, the $2&#039;s utterly failed to catch on with the public, and production was curtailed, leaving the BEP with a large inventory of unused star sheets.&nbsp; Those sheets were sold to the public between 1981 and the late &#039;80s.&nbsp; We don&#039;t have good records of the serial numbers of these sheets.&nbsp; Based on collector observations, there don&#039;t seem to have been any sheets sold from districts E and I, and very few were sold for district J.&nbsp; (That&#039;s why those three districts&#039; stars are the key stars for the 1976 $2 series--all the other districts&#039; stars are more or less readily available in CU condition from the sheets.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Another, much smaller batch of $2 star sheets were sold in a similar manner after the Series 1995 production run.&nbsp; In that case, we have precise information on the number sold; the BEP announced that only 4478 of the 16-subject star sheets were available for that series.</p><p><br /></p><p>When the BEP first began selling sheets of higher-denomination notes, they typically just borrowed some star sheets from some run that had just been printed for circulation purposes, in order to avoid the trouble of printing a very small uncut-sheet run (demand for high-denomination sheets being relatively small).&nbsp; Thus star sheets exist for the 2003 $5 DG..*, 1995 $10 F..*, 2003 $10 DA..*, 2004A $10 GB..*, GF..*, GL..*, 1996 $20 AL..*, 2004 $20 EA..*, 2004A $20 GA..*, and 2004 $50 EG..*.&nbsp; But more recently, they&#039;ve started printing even the high-denomination uncut sheets in special runs with high serial numbers.</p><p><br /></p><p>Finally, there was one oddball release of 1999 $1 E..* sheets.&nbsp; I haven&#039;t seen an explanation for that one; maybe the BEP just likes to keep us on our toes occasionally.&nbsp; At any rate, it&#039;s the only $1 star that&#039;s ever been sold in sheet form.</p><p><br /></p><p>Again, all of these star sheets have ordinary low-ish serial numbers, and none of them come in 32-subject form, only 16-subject and smaller.</p><p><br /></p><p>Oh, and in a separate exception to the sheets-have-high-numbers rule, there were also the 1995 $5 &quot;Prosperity&quot; sheets, all of which had serial numbers beginning with H8888, and were sold in 8-subject form only.&nbsp; Because the number 8 is <i>just that cool</i>.</p><p><br /></p><p>There now, aren&#039;t you glad you asked?&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie6" alt=":cool:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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