A BEP Serial Numbering Mistake: Duplicated Serial Numbers Issued For 2013 New York Star Notes

There have been several articles printed by renowned currency experts Peter Huntoon, and Ed Zegers, discussing in detail this unusual event in BEP history. A couple of their articles are attached to give detail as to what actually happened, and how some astute collectors noticed an anomaly, and thru the use of a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request, were able to officially find a major Error of the BEP, thus creating a collectors opportunity.

Here's a quick re-cap. The BEP issues Serial Numbers for Notes to be printed by the Washington DC and the Fort Worth printing facilities, for all 12 of the Federal Reserve Banks. Once printed, the notes are sent to the designated FRB for distribution.

In October and November 2014, the DC printing facility received authorization and printed New York Star Notes with serial numbers B00000001*-B00250000*, and B03200001*-B09600000*, they went out into circulation.

In June and July 2016, the FW printing facility received authorization and printed New York Star Notes with serial numbers B00000001*-B06400000*, and B06400001*-B09600000*, they went into circulation.

Thus there were duplicated serial numbers for the same 2013 New York series Star Notes B00000001*-B00250000*, and B03200001*-B09600000*.

Now, all these notes are out in the world somewhere. Thanks to some very dedicated collectors out there, a project has been started to try and find these notes, and MATCH them together with their duplicated counterpart. Can you imagine the odds against finding notes that have been out in the world for years and finding an exact matching serial number? The average lifespan of a $1.00 note is 5.8 years, how many have already been pulled from circulation?

Mr. Ed Zegers in Maryland, and Mr. Karol Winograd of Florida, and Richard McAllister of New York, along with a couple of others, have been maintaining a database for collectors to report their 2013 New York Star Notes to, and then when a match is made, they will organize the bringing together of the notes. There is also a thread here on the CCF for the duplicated 2013B* notes with contact information for the above Gentlemen if you want to get involved.

To date, there have been only four known matches made in the world. And now the First graded by PMG pair has been completed, and presented here today.




The bottom note was found in an unopened BEP pack by a collector in Las Vegas, Nevada, from the CCF. The top note was circulated, and found by a collector (and one of the project organizers) in New York. The collector in Las Vegas, matched a second uncirculated note as well, and by fate, it was with the same collector in New York, with another circulated note. So this made it easy for a mutual swap of one note each, so both owners could actually have a matched pair.

This unusual situation, and monumental accomplishment, will hopefully bring light to this rarity, and give fellow CCF'ers an opportunity to get in on the fun. The Zegers/Winograd project has several thousand notes listed, and you are encouraged to join in. The more collectors searching, the better chance there is to make more matches. Good Luck and happy hunting collectors!