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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Numbers, post: 449060, member: 11668&quot;]That&#039;s about the size of it, yes.&nbsp; Serials on the large-size notes didn&#039;t have leading zeroes, and so there was no standard number of digits.&nbsp; So the BEP decided fairly early on that some prefix/suffix characters should be used in order to prevent alterations (though exactly what nefarious purpose would be accomplished by adding digits to the serial number of a genuine note, I&#039;ve no idea).</p><p><br /></p><p>There&#039;s an interesting variety in the original-series Nationals: the earliest printings don&#039;t have a serial suffix of any kind, and if the serial number is shorter than six digits, they have a large white space between the serial prefix letter and the number itself.&nbsp; But that format didn&#039;t last long; the majority of the notes have a parenthesis as a serial suffix, and no space after the prefix.&nbsp; (The whole serialling system was very much made up as the BEP went along--it wasn&#039;t until the third block of original-series $1&#039;s that the BEP introduced serial prefixes at all.&nbsp; The first block had red serials without prefix or suffix; the second block had blue serials without prefix or suffix; and the third block went back to red with prefix A, since the BEP apparently realized that they&#039;d never find enough different colors to keep using *that* method forever.&nbsp; This is why you&#039;ll see some serials in this series catalogued as, e.g., &quot;114280 blue&quot;--the &quot;blue&quot; is the block designator, because there was also a 114280 red printed in the previous block!)</p><p><br /></p><p>More than once, I&#039;ve idly thought that it&#039;d be nice to have complete data on what serial suffix symbols (and what serial colors) were used on what notes.&nbsp; But as far as I can tell, nobody&#039;s compiled such data; and I don&#039;t really have the resources to do it myself.&nbsp; It&#039;d be much harder than simply checking one note of each series/denomination/type--some of the large-size series were printed for several decades with many signature combinations, and the serial colors and serial suffix symbols were occasionally changed mid-series just like the seal colors/styles were, for no apparent reason.</p><p><br /></p><p>One thing I&#039;m pretty sure of is that the 1869 USNs and the 1890-91 Coin Notes are the only large-size series to use the solid-star suffix.&nbsp; That&#039;s useful to know because one often encounters uninformed/dishonest sellers trying to pass them off as star (replacement) notes....&nbsp; All actual large-size star notes used a hollow-centered star, not a solid star.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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