Posted 01/08/2022 6:03 pm
I asked the same question to Derek Moffitt (uspapermoney) several years back and this was his reply to me ~
When currency is overprinted on COPE, the sheets with the 9999 and 0000 endings are *almost* always pulled for inspection and replaced by star sheets. This is a manual process, so occasionally it doesn't happen, in which case the 9999 and 0000 serials are actually issued. Additionally, at the end of each print run the sheet ending in 00002 is similarly pulled for inspection, which is why serials like 00000002 and 20000002 have been well-nigh impossible to find in recent years.
I don't know exactly when that protocol started, but it appears to have been in the '80s, well after the original introduction of COPE.
None of this applies to currency printed on the new LEPE lines. Those use computers to randomly select sheets for special inspection, so there's no pattern of serial numbers that are consistently pulled. Of course, so far LEPE is only used for $1's and some $2's, so the higher denominations still show the COPE pattern, with stars replacing nearly all 9999/0000 endings.
Hope this helps! :)
I bought this pair 7 or 8 years ago.
When currency is overprinted on COPE, the sheets with the 9999 and 0000 endings are *almost* always pulled for inspection and replaced by star sheets. This is a manual process, so occasionally it doesn't happen, in which case the 9999 and 0000 serials are actually issued. Additionally, at the end of each print run the sheet ending in 00002 is similarly pulled for inspection, which is why serials like 00000002 and 20000002 have been well-nigh impossible to find in recent years.
I don't know exactly when that protocol started, but it appears to have been in the '80s, well after the original introduction of COPE.
None of this applies to currency printed on the new LEPE lines. Those use computers to randomly select sheets for special inspection, so there's no pattern of serial numbers that are consistently pulled. Of course, so far LEPE is only used for $1's and some $2's, so the higher denominations still show the COPE pattern, with stars replacing nearly all 9999/0000 endings.
Hope this helps! :)
I bought this pair 7 or 8 years ago.
Edited by SteveInTampa
01/08/2022 6:04 pm
01/08/2022 6:04 pm
