1999 $5 Bill With No Serial Number

Is it in very poor conddition? Is the black seal on the bill? If it is, the ink could, in theory, have been washed out by strong detergent in a washing machine. If there is no black seal, and it's crisp, then it is possibly an error that can go for hundreds of dollars.

Oh, the green seal is there? Then yes, it's very possible it's an error. (though worth less than the one w/o the black seal) Several things could cause this, from the ink not ejecting to it missing the serial number printers.

That looks like an error to me.

Well, there isn't a clean cut value for errors like this, though. I would range it at over $200. Probably the best thing to do, if you wanted to sell it, would be an auction. There's probably somebody who'd pay a lot for something like this.

While you probably have an error on your hands, I would suggest the following,

Either goto a local coin shop that deals with errors (and not just the couple notes in the side case but actually actively deals with them)

or short of such a coin shop, goto a local coin show and find a table with a fair amount of error notes on it.

Ask the person to look at your note and give you an opinion about the error and value. Best to approach them when they are not busy with active buyers, but a good dealer would give you a few moments regardless.

The main thing for them to look at is to see if there is any evidence of rubbing or surface alterations where the numbers should be.

Normally with an insufficient ink error, there would still be an impression of the numbers in the note. It's possible that given the notes condition, that impression is difficult to see anymore, but it should still be there.

Hope this helps.

I would be careful about showing it around before you figure out what exactly it is. A couple years ago, serial numberless $100 bills were showing up in Delaware and a coin shop owned by a former poster here purchased a few of them knowing that they could possibly be illegal. Turns out, a BEP employee had stolen several sheets of numberless bills, hand cut them, and fed them into slot machines. Needless to say, he was arrested and the dealer had the notes confiscated by the Secret Service. The owner didn't really mind though since the money he was out from purchasing them was more than made up by all the free advertising every time he and his shop were mentioned with the story.
http://www.newszap.com/articles/200...re/dsn03.txt

Compare the borders of your bill to a normal $5. If they appear uneven or ragged, that could be a problem for you.

gatzdon,
Yes, he knew that these bills were possibly illicit. In fact, the Secret Service did not have any notes listed as stolen when they were contacted. If I remember correctly, his contact initiated the Secret Service investigation which followed the money trail. I really do have to laugh at some of the people that brought notes to him though. I believe he was offering $400 each with the caveat that they could be illegal and if they were, they would never have a chance to legally sell them again. A few people apparently thought the offer was lowball so they didn't sell. Those people now have a worthless, illegal piece of linen (provided that the Secret Service hasn't already paid them a visit...)