I Received A Wierd $1 US Today At A Food Market

For those that do not know him, Frederick Bart is not just a dealer, he also literally wrote the book on currency errors.

ccburt, you do not have to take our opinions if you do not wish to do so but we are just trying to give you our opinion of the value. I understand you are trying to get as many opinions as possible from as many experts as possible but in the end you have to choose yourself what you are going to believe and do with the note in the end. I am not an error collector (with coins) nor a hard core note collector so when I give an opinion it is usually based on what I have researched for this particular topic or when asked a value, what I have seen others similar being sold for when they are brought to market. When you go looking for something you have to find an example like it that has sold then you can only go by the auction results of those notes when they were sold and give an opinion of value based on those facts



I don't believe anyone was questioning his knowledge in the field it was just stated that he will need to make a profit on everything he buys so his offer is only going to be a percentage of the actual value of the item you are trying to sell him or he is making an offer on. Again I can only go by what I have seen items like it sell for and going by that he would probably have it for sale at 4 times the value given to the OP. I think the fact that he told the OP his note had a value of $50.00 but yet that is what he would also pay him for it kind of speaks volumes also no matter who it is. Only collectors will pay anywhere close to 100% of its value because they are not buying to resale, anytime a dealer of any kind is willing to buy something at 100% of what they say the value is tells me you need to find another dealer to take a look at it and get a second opinion

P.S. As a stamp collector I know that the value of a rare item is in reverse proportion to its condition. In other words, the rarer the stamp is the less important its condition becomes. However, currency differs from stamps in the important fact that EVERY single currency note is unique since each note has its own serial number, unlike stamps where every issue is printed exactly the same. Hence, for instance, one of the most valuable stamps in the world (the one-penny British Guiana magenta stamp of 1856) has all its corners cut off. But it's unique so its terrible condition is meaningless.

So the issue (for currency notes) becomes just how unusual the error is, and how close it might be to 'unique' status. I think Mr. Bart is an expert in this field so, I'm afraid, I'll defer to his expertise and assume that the type of error I have is not unique or even close to unique.

Anyhow, I am having a lot of fun showing this bill to my friends (I have placed it in a protective sleeve of course!) and am enjoying telling the strange story of how it ended up in my hands. I guess this sentiment is at the core of most of us whether we be stamp, coin, currency collectors.