Unc Notes Only?

Many of the notes I have I pulled from circulation. The good is that I only pay face value for them, the bad is sometimes the condition isn't always the greatest. But this I know, the satisfaction finding a collectible note in circulation far outweighs the satisfaction from buying the same note.

So I would have to say yes, you are missing out.

Thanks Nickel, you are of course right that pulling notes out of circulation is far more satisfying than buying them, but living outside the USA makes this a little difficult sometimes

Thanks Ceylon, I also buy many of my US notes at a small premium, sometimes on e-Bay, more often from various US-based contacts that I have gotten to know. Currently I am trying to get all the 1999-2003A $5's by district, as I find they have more "eye-appeal" than the most recent colorized notes. One interesting thing I have found is that when I travel to the US, I will usually visit a couple of banks and ask for "crisp uncirculated notes", but have had very limited success. Funny thing is that when I do the same here in Canada, more often than not I manage to actually get them .... this doesn't work so well for Canadian $'s however.

Hey Ceylon, right now I'm only trying to get one note from each Fed district for each year, doesn't really matter which block. The thing with collecting US notes is that the range of districts, blocks & other variations such as whether the note is DC or FW, is virtually endless, so I guess I have to set a limit somewhere! I also collect radars/repeaters/ladders/fancy #'s & end-pack label sets (mostly for $1 FRN's), so it should keep me busy for a long time. One funny thing: I came across a GEM $1 note recently that was 1 digit off being the EXACT day, month & year of my birthday - what are odds of that?