I believe this is some type of transfer error. Much more obvious in person but quite visible in pics. Notice the front border seen on the back of the note. Note is fairly crisp with no major wear to speak of. Photos taken on black granite surface BTW, ie no backlight. Found during a strap search and jumped out at me. Comments?
Scans would be able to show more detail than photos... It's a bit hard to tell. With an error like this, it has to be up to a certain level of being dramatic. -tbud
I'm not seeing the error either. If a scan is uploaded we may be of better help. If it is a small offset error, it may increase the value, but not to the levels of full offsets, or dark offsets.
Definitely scans are needed to see what you are seeing, but more than likely it's the ULTRA common occurrence of wet ink transferring off of one sheet of notes to the sheet above it, before the ink was fully dried. It's very, very common and NOT an error. Comments solicited, regarding, "Note is fairly crisp with no major wear to speak of." From the images supplied, the note clearly shows that it will not lay flat. It's been (softly) tri-folded, through circulation, meaning oils from hands, tellers grasps, their cash counters, strapped.unstrapped and who knows what else. This note couldn't even pass for AU given the circulation wear evident.
Scans here, I have no experience grading and was merely attempting to describe in casual terms, I substitute stiff for "crisp".
I would agree with Krispy, it is probably just from one note transferring ink to another from being tightlybundled and the ink not being completely dry. That's always been a problem. How to tell a wet ink transfer from an offset printing error? For an early offset it's pretty easy, but in later stages as the ink is depleted from the backerboard it will look just like a wet ink transfer from another note.
Thanks for the scans. I still don't see anything significant that you are seeing on this note, which suggests even more the common amount of wet ink that transfers from one note to another sheet's opposite side before the inks have fully dried after printing. I'll remove both 'crisp' and 'stiff' from the description of this note to help your understanding out a little further. Stiff isn't any more helpful when we can clearly see in the scan the note has ripples or a wavy pattern in the paper. It shows that the note is far from crisp as it will not lay flat. With the vertical fold approximately center it's far from anything better than AU. It's not an error, it's a spender.
Have to agree with krispy and CCMint on this one. Unfortunately wet ink transfer is not considered an error and will not increase the value of the note.
