Hi, I found your great forum while looking for information on this note I received as change the other day. You all seem to be helpful and nice so I thought this may be a great place to ask about this item. I'm not much of a currency collector myself. I have a small collection of pre-1930's U.S. coins in my safe, most of which were handed down to me, but I add to it when I find something interesting. The other day I received a 1950 five dollar bill as change at a local gas station, which I found very odd seeing as how it seems to be in very good condition. I was wondering if you folks might be able to give me some information on it. Not just the worth, but perhaps to help me authenticate it. It does have minimal wear and some nice detail in the printing. It feels like authentic currency. The thing that has me concerned is the seal under the word "FIVE" on the right is off center to the right. Is this an error, a feature or a sign of counterfeit? I'm not exactly familial with paper money collecting so it would be nice to know if this is worth keeping or just a good fake. I'm including some scans I made of the bill so you might be able to look at it. Should I also make a post in the paper money section? I'm sorry if this is the wrong section of the forum to ask this and moderators please feel free move this to the paper money section if need be. Any info at all is helpful. I look forward to seeing what you have to say! Thanks in advance!
Looks real and the serial number starting with 9999 makes me think it was hand cut from a sheet. The seal being off is not an error on your note. The offset has to do with how the notes are printed in stages. http://moneyfactory.gov/uscurrency/theproductionprocess.html Book value around $8-$12 for a normal note from a regular run. Yours may be worth more.
TheNoost is correct. This note was cut from an uncut sheet. I'd imagine that grandpa had an uncut sheet stored for years and got it ripped off or handed it down to grandson and that person spent it not taking the time to consider the significance. Your note is probably on the ligitmate side. I myself grabbed a 1950B LB block as well from a teller but it wasn't as high serial number or as nice condition. Nice pick up and it is definetely a keeper. It probably wouldn't demand a whole lot as far as premiums go so it's a cool find to grab and keep but if your in it for the premiums, it might not be so great after all. Please keep in mind that this note was not prited in 1950. If I were you, I'd try snooping around on USPaperMoney.Info and learn what you can there. Your particular note was printed anywhere from September of 1957 to June of 1961. Here is the specific page you would want to be looking at for your specific note: http://www.uspapermoney.info/serials/f1950bq.html
Thanks a lot for the info guys! I'll be holding on to this for sure. I don't sell stuff from my small collection so it's good to know it is authentic. I'll be getting a sleeve for it sometime soon. You guys are great and threads in this forum are very interesting, see you around!
I disagree that it came from an uncut sheet. The BEP did not begin setting aside the high serial number sheets until after this note was made.
When scanning notes, place a sheet of dark paper behind the note so that all margins of the note are defined. Sometimes scanners with automatically crop in tighter than the full piece being scanned if it detects lighter edges, such as the contrast between the black borders of the face design and the white of the paper itself. Unless the OP can confirm that the note is cut so tight on the face, it looks to me like the scan of the face of the note was cropped by the scanner, certainly not hand cut, which is supported by lettows comment as well. It appears we have the entire backside of the note shown, if you laid one image over the other, but the scanner detected the design of the face of the note and selected a tighter crop. If you want to, try rescanning the note as I suggest so we can see the full margins of the face in particular.
I'm a server and today I received a US 1934 $5 bill. Now, from what I did through a quick Google search, I couldn't get any real facts about it. Most importantly, it might be a fake. Any info would be great. Thank you.
This thread is pretty old, you may want to start a new one or you might be heckled by a few of the "locals" for reviving a dead forum. Also, photos help a lot.
