Silver-Cert Star Note... What Exactly Is A Star Note Anyway?

this is from wikipedia:
A star note is a United States bank note that has an asterisk (*), or star, before or after the serial number. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing inspects currency for printing errors prior to releasing notes into general circulation. When notes are discovered that have been printed incorrectly (such as having the serial numbers upside down, etc.) these misprinted notes (error notes) are replaced with star notes because no two bills can be produced with the same serial number. They are used to maintain a correct count of notes in a serial number run. By their nature, star notes are more scarce than notes with standard serial numbers and as such are widely collected by hobbyists. Some of the highest prices paid for modern (post-1928) U.S. banknotes have been for star notes. A star note is also substituted for the last note in a series rather than printing a note with a serial number consisting of eight zeros.

Explanation from wikipedia:

A star note is a United States bank note that has an asterisk (*), or star, before or after the serial number. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing inspects currency for printing errors prior to releasing notes into general circulation. When notes are discovered that have been printed incorrectly (such as having the serial numbers upside down, etc.) these misprinted notes (error notes) are replaced with star notes because no two bills can be produced with the same serial number. They are used to maintain a correct count of notes in a serial number run. By their nature, star notes are more scarce than notes with standard serial numbers and as such are widely collected by hobbyists. Some of the highest prices paid for modern (post-1928) U.S. banknotes have been for star notes. A star note is also substituted for the last note in a series rather than printing a note with a serial number consisting of eight zeros.


Hope this helps

Huh... nifty :D I never knew such a thing existed. I go through ALOT of bills in one shift at work, I'll have to start keeping an eye out for them. I tried clicking that link in another thread to figure out if your note is rare.. but it doesn't go back far enough for this one...

According to the Red Book for Paper Money:

Series 1957 A (no star) - 1,594,080,000 were printed
Series 1957 A * (your note) - 94,720,000 were printed

OK Wikipedia kind of glosses over what is going on.

the concept of the star note was introduced in the days before computers to aide with recordkeeping/auditing.

Scenario

=The BEP is authorized to print 320 Million Notes.

=During the run, the BEP had to destroy 1 Million Notes due to startup issues, printing errors, imperfections, etc...
(Remember, the BEP needs to keep track of where all the paper went. Nothing like consuming 10,031,250 sheets (assuming 32 notes to a sheet) to print 320 Millions Notes. Auditors need to understand where the extra 31,250 sheets went to (did they go to someone's private blackmarket printing operation).

=The BEP needs to print an additional 1 Million Notes to complete the 320 Million Note order, but of course the serial numbers of destroyed notes are almost completely random. It's impractical to reproduce just those numbers.

=An accounting genius figured out that if the 1 Million Note Run uses it's own numbering system with the asterisk, then they only need to reconcile the number of star notes against the destroyed notes from the 320 Million Note Run.

Much easier for an auditor to wrap his mind around this in the days before computers. Now an auditor can audit the waste (aka destroyed notes) and verify that they match the star note run quantity. You can break this up into two different functions and someone up top can easily see that all the numbers add up.

I'm oversimplifying here, but you can see the logic.

Please correct me if I'm wrong or mistating something.

I was also under the impression that authorizations for printing runs actually specified serial number ranges which the concept of the star note also worked well with as they didn't need to go back and modify the serial number range to print the replacement notes.