Silver Certificate Values (?)

Do the $5 North Africa notes hold a bigger premium than the $10? I read that they were harder to find

If you are referring to the 1934A, yes, that is correct. In all conditions, the $5 is considerably scarcer than the $10. The $5 note was printed in much smaller quantities as well.

The 1934 is another story. The $10 is a major rarity, while the $5 was not even printed.

Yes, 5 million less doesn't sound like much to those who collect green seals that are produced in billions upon billions. Consider that there were less than 21.3 million $10 notes and 16.7 million $5 notes printed, what does that equate to percentage wise? 20-25 percent less?





That well may be. I do not normally speak in terms of cost and value, because I do not keep up with that sort of thing. Scarcity though.....the $5 note is far more scarce.

When put that way... I agree, but my point is that it doesn't equate to a large premium.




It always comes back to that.

In my youth I have had an extensive bug collection (prize was a 3 inch rhinoceros beetle found in a blackberry thicket), a leaf collection (my Mom ironed them between sheets of wax paper), a TV guide collection (don't ask), a stamp collection (which I still have), coin collection (ongoing), etc, etc, etc. I collect, or have collected everything that isn't nailed down.

I never made a cent off my bug collection (although the rhino beetle was donated to a college in Indiana), my stamp collection is collecting dust in my closet, the TV guide collection (don't ask), coin collection I still have hopes for, leaf collection dunno what ever happened to it but I was left penniless when it vanished (I was in the third grade).

I get the whole green seal thing, I swear I do. But I (and a few others here) are compulsive collectors. I will naturally save things that are different or odd... green seals included. I like them. I tell people who say I am crazy (right before I kill them) that they are dollars I just haven't spent yet.

I made mention in another thread that people had to have the foresight to save things now or they wouldn't be available in the future. I stand by that statement. There will come a day when green seals are rare. No it won't be in our lifetimes. But unless the Earth is destroyed by a NEO it will happen.

Someone has to preserve the future by setting aside the present.

Yeah, you just keep on believing that. You'll be in good company with those folks who saved all those silver certificates rather than redeeming for silver when they had the chance. How much are silver certificates worth versus the price of silver bulion? Yeah, save those green seals for the day that they become rare, or the earth is destroyed.....that makes far better sense than investing in mutual funds or savings accounts where money actually grows.

edited to add:

Collecting is one thing Nick, and we both understand that, but what are the majority of the questions all about? 'How much is it worth?'
I see nothing about 'collecting' in such a question.

Do you do commercials for J.G. Wentworth ? That had a rather familiar ring to it Mike.

I totally agree by the way (except for the part about the Morgans).

You keep talking about the value of notes. That isn't what I am talking about at all.

Simple question (true or false): The number of silver certificates on the planet today is the same as the number that existed last week.

Attrition is the key word. I have a few silver certificates in my sock drawer and my house burns down. Or my 3 year old gets hold of the notes and discovers what scissors are for... etc.

Everything that has a beginning has an end. As long as we don't destroy ourselves, or we aren't annihilated by a superior alien race, or the Earth isn't destroyed by natural catastrophe there will be a day where someone is holding the last silver certificate known to exist on the planet in their hands. It may take 10,000 years but it has to happen.

In a thousand years do you think the US will still be printing FRN's? I really doubt it. But there may very well still be notes out there being passed from collector to collector with the number of them being slowly whittled away by attrition.

The notes that exist will be the ones that were squirreled away by the collectors who's bones were long ago reduced to dust.

I said it before and I'll say it again, someone has to preserve the future by setting aside the present.

I understood your point of view the first time you stated it Nick. How many events such as you mention would it take to even scratch the surface of the number of extant silver certificates?

I was talking about scarcity, not value.

In 'my' opinion, scarcity is determined by several variables in the descending order:

1.) The number of notes printed; if only 160,000 notes are printed, they are scarce from the day that production ceases.

2.) The number of notes issued; it doesn't matter how many were printed if only 8,000 were issued.

3.) The number of notes redeemed and destroyed by the government.

4.) The number of children with scissors in burning houses.

Consider the web press notes of 1992-1996 for instance. About 309 million of them were printed.....to me, that is a whole lotta notes, while to you perhaps, it is not.

I guess that it really isn't a lot as compared to the sheet fed FRN of the same time period where most districts were printed in excess of a billion notes each, and some more than 2 billion.

Only the first and second intaglio printings were made on this so called web press, the overprinting and the cutting continued to be done with the COPE-PAK.

The first web notes to be printed were the 1988A New York BL block in May 1992. The second block printed was the Atlanta F* block in June 1992.

These two blocks were destined to become the scarcities of the web press notes right from the git go, but for different reasons.

The BL block was released with minimal publicity prior to any o the other blocks even being printed. As a result, collectors did not notice them as anything other than washed out notes. This coupled with the fact that the BL block only had a printing of 1,920,000 caused it to be very scarce by the time that the F* block was printed in a quantity of 640,000. It is unlikely that of this F* amount, more than 160,000 actually were issued for circulation. Most other web blocks were printed in amounts exceeding 12 million notes. It is my viewpoint that web notes are common in general. Only the BL and the F* blocks are scarce in relation to the other blocks of the same series. Are they rare notes when compared to other types of U.S. currency? My answer would be no.

I am not going to argue with you about it Nick, you have stated your views on it and I have now stated mine.