Anyone collecting Small Size Federal Reserve Notes?

[1/2 Cotton 1/2 Linen]

I am wondering if anyone here is collecting the small size US Federal Reserve notes? If so, what area interest you and why?

If you care to be specific by all means do so. Do any of you specialize in Series? Anyone trying to collect a specific Federal Reserve Branch complete series of Notes?

 

Post some pics and what got you interested in these notes.

Provide details of what you think of the older currency from the new modern printings.

As an example the Series of 1928 numeral notes-vs- the 1928 A letter notes.

 

What quality differences do you see? Ink colors, signatures and information on the time line for such notes.

 

This should be interesting as well as thought provoking!

Here is one of mine....

 

1/2 Cotton 1/2 Linen

[Vfox]

I do and don't it's kind of a mixed bag for me. I prefer LARGE sized currency most, but have recently gotten more respect for how difficult some small sized issues actually are to find in Ch.CU. My most complete collection of FRNs is the $1 series from 1963-2006 (although my real set starts in 1899, but we are talking FRNs, not silver certificates, war issues, and united states notes here). From 1963-2006 I am only missing a series 1969, 1981, and 1985. I don't collect by series letter, like 2003A or anything, just the year, one Ch.CU example of each. I do need to upgrade a few, but I just need to get the last 3 and then I'll worry about that.....and those darn web press notes...lol.

[see323]

Here is my US solid 55555555 collection. Unfortunately, only two pieces so far.

 

http://www.notepassion.com/NP-BN-WS-555555-USA.html

 

[Vfox]

If you could See, would you get a 1-100 solid 55555555 with the same letters before and after, or doesn't that make a difference to you? Very nice $50 btw, that one must have cost you an arm, or leg, or both, lol.

[San_Miguel98]

Hands down, my pride and joy in the federal reserve category is the BL web press note. Often called the "King of Webs", B-L block notes were the first issues of the new web press. Nobody knew they existed, and the vast majority of them were heavily circulated. Less than 20 are known to exist today in uncirculated condition.

 

 

All of my u.s. notes are small size, and I collect each by type. For more scans, click on my signature graphic below.

[Vfox]

DBL post, sorry.

[Vfox]

Haha, way to make my collection look like pocket change. That 1928 red seal is a crispy gem, same goes for your R and S experimental 35 silver certificates.

 

And speaking of web press notes, I work with money all day long, and to give you an example of how hard they are to find actually in circulation, I've looked through 13,000-14,000 one dollar notes in the last month and haven't found one. Heck I only found maybe 2 dozen notes from the 80's about 100 barr notes and only one series 2006. (which is in my collection till I buy a pack and grab the nicest one out, lol) I may have to just buy a web press note sometime if I can't find the darn thing in change, lol.

[see323]

If you could See, would you get a 1-100 solid 55555555 with the same letters before and after, or doesn't that make a difference to you? Very nice $50 btw, that one must have cost you an arm, or leg, or both, lol.

 

Yes, the $50 55555555 does cost me an arm a few years ago but it is worth it because there are not many $50 solid around. When you go for the rarer ones, their prices usually shoot up faster than the common ones.There will be a big gap in prices between the rare ones and the common ones. It is still a good buy.

 

Actually I am trying to build a type set of 55555555 for all the US denomination ( $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 ). Because some of them are very expensive, I had to save enough money to purchase them. Moreover, I still have to take care of the other countries' solid as well.

 

[San_Miguel98]

Haha, way to make my collection look like pocket change. That 1928 red seal is a crispy gem, same goes for your R and S experimental 35 silver certificates.

 

And speaking of web press notes, I work with money all day long, and to give you an example of how hard they are to find actually in circulation, I've looked through 13,000-14,000 one dollar notes in the last month and haven't found one. Heck I only found maybe 2 dozen notes from the 80's about 100 barr notes and only one series 2006. (which is in my collection till I buy a pack and grab the nicest one out, lol) I may have to just buy a web press note sometime if I can't find the darn thing in change, lol.

 

 

lol...less than 5 years ago, all of my notes were world notes that cost me less than $20 apiece. less than 1 year ago, i didn't even have a u.s. section! i've been collecting for almost 20 years, so this recent move to the "better stuff" is a pretty big change for me. one of these days, i'm hoping i can afford to move into large-size territory. "hoping" is the key word, given my army salary.

 

as for webs, they haven't been issued for circulation for around 10 years now. given the average life span for paper...finding one in circulation would be pretty tough. it's possible, since some people can find series 1934 or 1950 notes every once in a while, but a lot of people still don't even know about webs. to most, they look just like normal dollars and they don't get saved. good luck on your hunt though, and keep us posted if you ever find any!

[jtryka]

This is interesting, and perhaps I took a slightly different collecting path than many others. I started really saving consecutive uncirculated $1 notes just as the series 1985 notes were being released. Lucky for me at the time, there were still some series 1981A notes out there so I picked up some of them as well. Then I saved a bunch of series 1988, 1988A, 1993, 1995, 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2003A. Over the years it's been somewhat haphazard, I may find a bunch, or only a few (2001 is my lowest year, only about 6 total). Lately I've tried to just save 10 consecutive whenever a new series comes out. Shortly after I started that I started doing it with $2, but more as a byproduct of looking for $2 US Notes! I would search through the bank and buy $2 notes and back in the 1980s and 1990s you could still fairly regularly find old US notes, even as far back as series 1928! As I searched for them, I would squirrel away other interesting ones I'd find, consecutive uncs (including 3 series 1976 star notes from the Philly Fed). Since then I've saved a bunch of series 1995 and 2003 $2 notes.

 

Beyond the efforts at ones and twos, I tend to hoard old notes whenever I find them. I've received FRNs as old as 1928A in circulation, and every so often find a series 1934, or 1950 and then just save them. I have a type set of old-style notes too, all in unc. I have also saved some of the new style notes as they've been released, a couple consecutive of the $10 and $20 as they moved to color. It's really odd, as even the $1 and $2 collections are somewhat irregular, above $2 it gets really unsystematic. My favorite design, is the old style $50, and I like any older FRN with the "Will pay to the bearer" language. I don't have a $500 or $1000, but I am thinking more and more about getting one. I really am not a big fan of the new big head designs.

[jtryka]

Deleted duplicate post.

[thedeadpoint]

So I've been doing this for a few years but I can never remember what a web press note is and what a barr note is. If I'm not mistaken, a Barr note is a special signature from the 60s???

 

What's a web press note?

 

What's a barr note?

[Vfox]

A Barr note is from the 1963-B series one dollar note. I think his name is Joseph Barr, and he was in office for only a short time (I think a month). During this time, millions of notes were printed, and because of how short of a term he had, thousands were saved as collectors notes. Unfortunately for the ones who saved them, they became one of the most common unc FRN one dollar notes and are regularly found in nice shape in circulation. They still demand a small premium, but are cheaper then say a Ch.unc 1977 series.

 

A Web press note is a note printed on a web press (similar to a newspaper printer). It was only used for a small portion of US one dollar notes, and only for a few years; 88, 93, and 95 (thanks Miguel). These are exactly the same as a regular one dollar note, except on the lower right and top left were the plate numbers are, the top left is missing, and the lower right number is just a number, and no letters. You may see notes that have plate number G21 or something, on a web note it's just 21. These are really hard to find in Ch.unc!

[San_Miguel98]

change the 85 to 95, and you've got it.

 

web notes are tough to find because they were only printed for four years. they began production in may 1992, (series 1988A), kept printing through series 1993, and stopped printing in july 1996, (series 1995). most people in the public never heard of them, and couldn't identify one if you gave them both a web and a regular note to compare.

 

forgive the upside-down distractions on the top note. it's the only one i had scanned.

 

 

ok...the 'somewhat' regular note is on top, web on the bottom. arrow A in the top note denotes plate position D1. since webs are printed from huge "toilet paper rolls", they don't have plate positions. so, arrow A on the bottom shows an empty field.

 

arrow B on the top indicates the regular note was printed using face plate #D92. the web note was printed using plate #1. like vfox said, the letter isn't used on webs. another interesting fact...webs didn't use very many printing plates. arrow B on webs will always show a letter-less plate number between 1 to 10.

 

for more information and an explanation on plate positions and plate numbers, visit

http://www.uspapermoney.info/general/note.html

[San_Miguel98]

hmmm...maybe an easier way is to just look at the back. if the tiny number is near the bottom, it's normal. if it's in the top, it's a web!

 

regular: bottom right

 

web: top right

[1/2 Cotton 1/2 Linen]

Hello and Thank you everyone for replying. What some nice notes you have See 323!

 

San Miguel...nice web note..indeed they are hrad to find.

 

A question for each of you is "What inspired you to collect what you currently have"?

How long has it taken to get to where you are at?

 

How do you get the enlarged images on your post's? The one I put on is tiny compared to what you posted.

 

Thanks...and keep them coming!

 

I have a Dallas FRN $50 with the following SN# 01688601* and 5 others that follow it in numerical order.

They are of course Gem Crisp.

 

1/2 Cotton 1/2 Linen

[Vfox]

I didn't know that the reverse was different as well, very thorough Miguel!

 

1/2 Cotton 1/2 Linen, use http://www.tinypic.com to upload photos to the actual post you are using, as well as make sure they are about 4-7 inches across so we can clearly see them, and no less than 72 DPI (although I use 120DPI, but for no particular reason).

 

As for what inspired me? When I was a child (about 12 or so) I got a 1899 large sized black eagle $1 silver certificate from a dealer, at the time it cost be $14 and was in about Vf or so, and was the older paper currency I ever owned. (Until I started to collect colonial currency and broken banknotes, but thats another thread I started ;p) Anyway, that got me interested in the history of the $1 notes, and I started to do a little research. When i finally started to seriously collect them was only a year ago, and that was when i started my $1 set. It was mainly price, ease of finding less common notes, and the interesting varieties they each had that really got me interested.

[San_Miguel98]

yeah, once you have pictures online somewhere, you can link to them by surrounding the image address with tags. example: [ img]http://www.example.com/picture.jpg[ /img]

 

my inspiration was my passion for travel and history. before i joined the army, my dad was in the navy. we lived in a new country every 3 years, and as a kid i got to keep all our leftover old country/vacation money. in 1998, i gave up coins altogether and focused on paper. i slowly got rid of circulated notes, and focused on getting everything in uncirculated.

 

my first goal was to have 1 note from every single country in the world. all my pages were 3-pocket pages, so i figured i should get denomination runs...like 1, 5, 10, or 5, 10, 20. soon, my albums were nearly full, and everything i needed was out of my price range, like zanzibar and palestine. to fill the void, i started collecting banknote-like items...such as private issues, promotional notes, and local currencies. as my finances improved over the years, i branched out, made upgrades, and added more and more collecting areas.

 

and that's where i am now. i'm at the point where i want to collect every single type of paper money ever printed in the world, so long as it's uncirculated. it's a goal i'll never complete, (especially without winning the lottery), but it'll be fun!

[Scottishmoney]

I like the older small size notes that have the red seals(US notes), blue seals(Silver Certs) gold seals(Gold Certs) etc. Now the older FRN's have appeal because their designs are different from what we see now, I got a 1995 $5 in change the other day, it was the first old $5 I have seen in a while.

[Brett]

Where arrow B is pointing, how come on 1999, 2001, 2003 & 2003 A some have "FW" in front of the D92??

[San_Miguel98]

in 1991, a new printing facility was opened in fort worth, texas. any note without the 'FW' facility mark was printed in washington d.c.

[Vfox]

Great, more variety.

[thedeadpoint]

Thanks Vfox and SM for the explanations. I tend to keep any 1995 and older currency when I see it anyhow. Too bad they come around so infrequently that I doubt a webnote has passed through my hands in the last half decade.

 

SM, did you ever get a note from each nation?

[1/2 Cotton 1/2 Linen]

I didn't know that the reverse was different as well, very thorough Miguel!

 

1/2 Cotton 1/2 Linen, use http://www.tinypic.com to upload photos to the actual post you are using, as well as make sure they are about 4-7 inches across so we can clearly see them, and no less than 72 DPI (although I use 120DPI, but for no particular reason).

 

As for what inspired me? When I was a child (about 12 or so) I got a 1899 large sized black eagle $1 silver certificate from a dealer, at the time it cost be $14 and was in about Vf or so, and was the older paper currency I ever owned. (Until I started to collect colonial currency and broken banknotes, but thats another thread I started ;p) Anyway, that got me interested in the history of the $1 notes, and I started to do a little research. When i finally started to seriously collect them was only a year ago, and that was when i started my $1 set. It was mainly price, ease of finding less common notes, and the interesting varieties they each had that really got me interested.

 

 

Thanks Vfox...very interesting. Do you have a link to your 1899's??

 

1/2 Cotton 1/2 Linen

[Vfox]

I actually sold that first one, but in my banknotebank link, in my signature, I have two black eagles, one is CU, and the other is a holed rag junker. Have a look.