Cool find...

[jeh46544]

I don't know if any of you are paper money collectors but I just had a great find. In my change I got a nice $1 star note. Not just a star note but with a low serial number. The serial number is D 00037469 *. I have a whole bunch of other star notes too. Mostly $1s but I have a $5 and I had a $10, but I accidently spent it without even noticing.

[davefperry]

I found some $10 star notes last month with consecutive serial numbers. But they were of recent vintage and I wanted the money more than the rarity. They are neat to find.

[Hoot]

Found one recently in a 1994 Jefferson SMS set. What's it worth Joe?

 

Hoot

[braddick]

I was handed a ten dollar bill in change that is a counterfeit. It is so well done I decided just to keep it, as if I bought it for the $10.

[EVillageProwler]

In a recent dream, I had a really cool find.

 

I withdrew from the ATM a stack of 20's for the Baltimore Show. I didn't use up all that cash. One day, I discover that the remaining crisp notes were all consecutively numbered star notes. The dream seemed so real that I didn't realize that it wasn't real until several moments had passed.

 

The reason why the dream seemed so real was because it happened to a friend of mine.

 

My friend also lives in NYC, in a crowded part of the city too! His wife was at a nearby ATM taking out money. When she got her notes, they were all crisp and consecutively numbered star notes. She stayed in front of the ATM machine -- would NOT budge -- and called her husband. He goes running out of his apartment with whatever sloppy clothing he can throw on, darts through all the people on the street, and withdraws $700 in crisp, consecutively numbered star note 20's.

 

The image of my friend's wife blocking the ATM and my friend running through the street like OJ is too funny to me!

 

Coin-beast: did he ever tell you this story?

 

EVP

 

[jeh46544]

Wow EVP, that's a great story. There is an ATM around here that only gives out crisp, consecutive $20 bills, but I havn't heard of any star notes coming from it.

[Hoot]

One of my favorite coins is a 2.5 dollar couterfeit Indian that I got hosed for. It is a superb specimen, correct weight, but slightly muted in color and with a tell-tale mark below the Indian's ear. So I got ripped, it's neat.

 

Hoot

[Coinosaurus]

EVP-

 

No, I was not aware of this. Good story

[Coinosaurus]

I forgot to add, I know absolutely nothing about currency. Can someone explain the significance of the star?

[EVillageProwler]

Coin-beast:

 

If you want to learn about star notes, just call D and ask him also to tell you his story. I'm sure he'll tell it just a little bit differently.

 

EVP

 

[jtryka]

Typically, the serial number will end with a letter, but if something happens in the printing process, like misprints or some damage to the notes, the BEP cannot print another note with the identical serial number as the damaged notes. So they end up replacing the letter at the end with a little star.

 

I have gotten a few star notes over the last month or so, spent them all since they were cruddy. But I did get a crisp new series 1985 $10 that I kept, and a series 1977 $1 that I still have in my wallet.

[jeh46544]

Wow jtryka, You're lucky to find a crisp 1985 $10 star. The oldest star I have is a 1957 silver certificate star $1.

[Oldtrader3]

There are $2-1/2 counterfeits all over Latin America. For sale, at a discount I'm sure, to naive Gringos. I have seen them for sale in Jewelry Store windows in several Central American cities as far back as 1968. What I heard was that they were 10 carat, not 18 carat. Hence the lighter color. So the counterfeiters were making the small difference in gold weight, plus whatever coin markup they could get.

 

I also understand that the Russian Mafia and enterprizing Chinese or Thai make struck American Gold coins as well, although I have never seen any of them. I have seen a couple cast counterfeits, but they were pretty rough. It is usually easy to tell the Latin American counterfeits because of their lighter color and indented details on the surface of the dies, probably from used dies made of old beer cans. They must mix lead with the gold alloy to get the correct coin weight.

[Hoot]

Charlie - I was told that the counterfiet 2.5 dollar Indian I have is one of those out of the Orient. It has a slightly darker color and more coppery color to it. Perhaps the increased lead content makes for a darker apperance.

 

Hoot

[Oldtrader3]

Having less gold in the alloy, maybe they added more copper with the lead to darken and try to match the correct color? Interesting though that all these counterfeiters picked the Indian Quarter and Half Eagles to counterfeit. Mainly the Quarter Eagle. You would think that they would pick a larger denomination. I have always been puzzled by that choice of denomination and design. I wonder if the incused design had some benefit for them? There must be some logical reason?

 

There I go being logical again. Maybe it was because they did not have a lot of raw materials and wanted to spread the coins out? Who knows?

 

Counterfeiting must be a big deal outside the US. I always checked all $20's, 50's and $100's bills for the threads when I was in Asia and had to cash Traveler's Cheques. Someone told me that Russian high quality counterfeit bills were all over Asia, apparently a high % of large denomination bills were counterfeit.

 

The Russians apparently photoetched plates from actual bills, but they did not have the correct paper. That is why the US changed the design, starting with the $100 bill. I quess that the $100 was the biggest problem.

[EZ_E]

I saw a recent $5 star note for sell on the bourse floor at a coin show in Tacoma, Wa 2 weeks ago for over $500. Wow. That seems like a lot of coins to pay.

 

I remember, as a kid, my dad came across a counterfeit Walking Liberty 1/2 dollar. It was light in weight. My dad proposed that maybe "the silver was burned out of it". The local coin dealer said that wasn't possible.

[jtryka]

Oldtrader,

 

I think the choice of denomination could be explained by the premiums typical of coins in the market, relative to the gold content as well as the weight itself. Common date double eagles may sell for $400-500, but that is only a 30%-60% premium to the gold content (if the coin is genuine), but a quarter eagle may sell for $150-200, which is a 400%-600% premium. Now the weight issue, let's say the counterfeiter is off by 10% on weight, to the average collector it's hardly noticable on a quarter eagle, but on a double eagle, people would start to notice. Ultimately, I think it's the premium issue, for the same amount of gold, you can either make one double eagle for $400-500, or 8 quarters for a total of $1,200-1,600! As far as the indian design, I think that is more because it's easier to counterfeit, given the incuse design and lack of raised rim. It seems to me that the average person would be much more easily duped by such a design, than one where so many raised devices could tip them off to the scam. Just my thoughts.

[Oldtrader3]

The larger mark-up had not occured to me. It makes sense, now that you mention it. I had heard that some of the dies were copper with a master that was cut by spark erosion (EDM). That may explain why the coins had raised marks on them. I would not imagine that the dies would last too long, probably long enough, but they are easy to strike if you do not have a heavy press. Copper is not that much less ductile than gold.