I was just talking to an old friend of mine that still lives in Arizona and was telling him about my new hobby of numismatics and was asking him if he had any old coins he's saved over the years. He used to own a check cashing business and I knew he had gone through a lot of cash. He said he had this one five dollar bill he found that looks normal at first glance but has a mint fold across the presidents face, but when you pull gently on the bill it unfolds and is blank inside and makes the bill bigger. He said it is in crisp shape. He has kept it in an envelope and has had it a long time. I can't remember if he got this when he had his business or not. It might be well over 20 years old. He said he hasn't looked at it in years and doesn't remember the year. He also said he had 2 5 dollar silver certificates in sequential order that are in perfect shape from 1950 and 2 more 5 dollar silver certificates that are in sequential order, but not in perfect shape. He said they were slightly used, but not in bad shape. The only other bill he remembered having was a 1934 100 dollar bill that is in good shape. I told him I din't know much yet about paper money yet, but that I would put the info out for the experts on here to give him some kind of a hint. He doesn't do the computer thing and doesn't have a digital camera, but he would try to take pictures with a regular camera and send them to me some time next week and I'll put them in my scanner and post them for you guys to examine if you think its worth the trouble. Thanks for any info on these. Tom
the error note, if a true mint error, would be a real nice find. A posted pic would greatly help. If real, it would be worth a nice sum for error collectors. The silver certificates would also sell for a nice sum above face, as well as the 100 note. None would make him rich, but it would be a return on the initial investment.
Thanks. I will talk to him again this weekend and find out if he has sent the pictures yet. Hopefully he has, but he never gets into a hurry about anything. Thanks. Now I have an idea of what to search for on the net to get some more info on this error type.
Ok he finally sent me the 5 dollar bill with the gutter folds in it. I scanned the front then zoomed in on the bottom section of the front. It has 2 seperate folds, and the smaller one goes beside the presidents ear. On the back of the bill you can see it was folded, but somehow the print is not messed up. You can see on the back that it is not placed correctly on the paper from what little I understand about currency.
The printing was not messed up on the back of the note because the sheet was folded after the back was printed. (paper money is printed in three steps. The back is printed one day, the face the next day. Then either later that day or the next day the seals and serial numbers are printed on the notes.) In the case of your note the back was printed, the sheet folded, the front was printed, the seals were printed, and then the notes were cut apart. That is why the note is bigger when it is unfolded. Sometimes the sheet gets unfolded before the cutting inwhich case the note is regular size when opened and SMALLER than normal when folded.
What would I tell him this $5 bill might be worth to an error collector, or where might I be able to find out this info? I told him what you guys said so far and he says its encouraging atleast. Thanks for the info. Tom
You could get between 15 and 50 for it on ebay. Depending if enough paper note error collectors see it. Maybe even a few bucks more. I once paid a $150 to a 69 off "centers" $100 note. No one else wanted it.
Ok thanks. I will let him know. I appreciate all the information on this thread. It was very informative. Tom
