Post Your Light Green Seal Notes!

Most collectors of early small size paper money keep an eye out for the so-called "Light Green Seal" (LGS) FRN notes and generally agree that these are more attractive than the "Dark Green Seal" (DGS) versions. The change from dark to light was made during the early 1930s and then back to a pale blue green shade in late 1938.

It's a confusing subject because, as described by Schwartz and Lindquist in the 10th Edition of their Standard Guide, the change from dark to light was progressive and "collectors have been able to assemble sets...with many graduations in color" for such notes - some yellowish-green and others less so but still much lighter than the DGS notes. Purists tend to use the LGS designation only for those with a vivid yellow-green color, but sometimes one must rely on High/Low serial number observations for confirmation with often head-scratching results. Older TPG holders can even be wrong.

I'll lead off with one of my favorites, a 1928-A $100 LGS note from the St. Louis district. This example is crisp new with deep embossing and reverse margins that, while wide right, are still broad enough to push this toward a 65 grade I think. It's a tough note to value, though - the Friedbergs don't even give the 1928-A LGS issues their own FR numbers, as they do with the 1934 Series, and there hasn't been a CU example at Heritage for almost 4 years.