Rookie Question, What Does The City Actually Mean?

The cities were the ones chosen to be the locations of the Federal Reserve banks back in 1913.

Currency was printed for that particular district which then arrived at the Federal Reserve Bank which shipped it out to smaller banks that requested it.

Used to be that notes printed for a district say Kansas City were only distributed in that area whereas today the Fed sends out whatever is in their possession regardless of what district it was printed for.

-MV

to CCF!

to the Community!

Yes. Typically the heavy hitters are San Francisco, New York, and Atlanta. Followed by Philadelphia, Chicago and Dallas. Minneapolis, Cleveland and and St.Louis are usually towards the bottom.

District print runs have shifted dramatically since the introduction of small notes in 1928, as you might expect. In the old days, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and even Cleveland often produced the most notes, while Dallas, Minneapolis, Kansas City and St. Louis usually had smaller outputs. It varies by series and denomination, but our westward population shift is clearly reflected in district totals over some 90 years now!

Prices are very much influenced by district print runs, especially the further back you go. There are other factors at work as well, of course, but like coin mintages, lower print runs will usually bring higher prices. This is not as much the case for items printed or coined during the last, say, 40 years or so, where outputs for all districts and mints have tended to be massive.

As I say, there are many factors, but your choices may not be the best comparisons. Note higher valuations for Richmond, Minneapolis and Dallas in the 1928B $20 series, each with lower printings than KC, much less Chicago. There may have been a stash of KC notes discovered at some point.

Other factors: The 1928B $20 FRN series has a huge total printing for all districts, which helps satisfy type collectors. Also, it is not as widely collected as the "numerical" series of 1928 and especially 1928A, which is full of tough notes. By the time the 1934 Series was introduced, print runs were gigantic, relatively speaking, for all the districts, so prices tend to depend more on grading than the district designation.

As a general rule, regardless of denomination, choose a series to collect where the total print run of all districts is comparatively low (1928-A $20), or even an early low denomination series that circulated heavily like the 1928-A $5 issue - I guarantee you'll see significant variations in district valuations.