Error Notes - Some Questions

Hi all,

My dad has been collecting for a while and he's right into finding "error" notes in his change lately. Personally from what I've seen around it is very open to interpretation what constitutes a "true" error note. Ink smudges, etc can often be the result of notes being rubbed together after minting can they not? Or someone could draw on a note then put it through the wash to create a similar effect? You could trim 10mm off one end of a note and say it's an error cut by the mint even! On paper notes the supposed "ink bleed" error appears on nearly every one I've seen to some extent - the type of paper used seems to prevent a nice crisp print of any of the denomination numbers on them - are they really errors?

And then there's the question of value - is there any real value in this type of dubious error note (I am excluding clear minting errors like a missing colour run, folded corner during printing, etc here as they obviously sell at a premium) or are they really just for ebay scammers to try it on with?

Here is an example of a note we found recently: http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/...ked50uq7.jpg

It has some blue smudging at the bottom. Given the note's condition (F-VF) I can't see it being valuable and the smudging could really have come from anywhere. I told him to put it back into circulation but he seems to think it may sell on ebay as an error note - not for a huge price but perhaps at a small premium to it's otherwise face value.

I'm interested to hear some opinions on this and if anyone collects these kind of error notes.

Cheers.