hey guys and gals! This piece walked in the door this morning. It has me stumped. It is missing the second printing...and is also missing the reverse print. It is on authentic paper... and I can find no traces of the reverse embossing (meaning it was never hit with the rollers and then bleached off) I can see the obverse embossing through the paper....but no traces of the reverse... Obverse plate trial???? anyone??

Here is my speculative answer:

Two sheets stuck together on first printing and second printing. Then separated befor third printing. Then both sheets 'properly' cut and issued. There may be a note out there with no second pinting but with a third printing.

Another possibility is that the note was split into a face side and a back side then the blue bleached off. The identifier for that would be a rough-feeling paper texture on the reverse [unprinted] side.

Just my thoughts...

thanks for the input jay. I just felt it and the reverse is nice and smooth... not rough and grainy. Too bad it's in the shape it is in...

What gets me is that the note appears to be heavily circulated, and I suppose that it could have just been from someone found and kept in their wallet for a long, long time too. Even so, I think that it is highly suspect that the note should be in such condition with the obvious errors.

My thought is that it was a curiosity someone obtained somehow and kept it in their wallet. The creases/folds are sharp and it appears that they are not doubled or tripled too much from others missing the mark when they would quickly fold them. A quick look at a five and ten in my wallet show that they have broad folds/creases and that there are crooked ones and off center ones, etc. For a note to be circulated and be in that condition I would think there would be more of that. The wrinkles in the rest of it are common to some papers I have kept in my wallet for a bit too long. The dirty aspect of it, well, maybe the owner was just a dirty little fellow.

So that’s my guess – but Sherlock Holmes I’m not!

this may sound dumb but maybe the rand out of ink when they were printing it

it could be... I am having one of my dealer friends (who is himself a banknote guru) look at it next week... and I will let you guys know after he gets a hands on