I am very unabashedly not a bill guy…. However I was just gifted this 1953 five dollar note with the motto missing…… In an effort to try and understand what I was given, I have been doing the perfunctory Google research. It appears we had red seal and blue seal notes and it appears the blue seal notes are silver certificates. And the blue seal notes do not display the motto above the memorial…… Could it be that a blue seal reverse plate was used in error?
Your note is a 1953 C series. Notice the C under the date? As stated, the motto was never there. It’s normal. It’s also not rare but they don’t make them any longer. Each letter below the date signifies a change to the bill so with a C, there are 4 varieties that exist.
There's always this great site for info on bills: http://www.uspapermoney.info/ I was also going to recommend the book (Standard Guide to Small Size U.S. Paper Money : 1928 to Date) but I couldn't find a link to one for sale at a reasonable price. I bought the 10th Edition may 6 years ago for $33, but used versions are now asking 5 times that.
Hey @CoinCorgi, the website you referenced hasn’t been updated in three years. Here’s the new updated website - https://www.uspapermoney.io/index.html
