Hologram $1 and $2 Bills
All United States paper money has two distinctly colored matching serial numbers printed somewhere on the face side. Our currency has always, and probably will always have the two numbers as a control check on the validity of the bills. Every bill in any given series has a different pair of numbers, so it should be impossible to ever find any genuine U.S. paper money with the exact same two numbers.
The only time that numbers are repeated is when a new series of bills is issued. This usually happens only when there is a new Treasury official’s name on the note, or a new series date. Unlike coins, paper money is dated from the time it is authorized, and not with the current year.
The numbering system on U.S. money is a good deterrent to counterfeiting and works great when everything is going as planned, but occasionally there are printing errors that tend to mess things up a bit. About once or twice a year a sheet of notes accidentally slips through the system without any numbers being printed on it. Even more frequent than that is the situation where a numbering machine gets stuck, or is improperly set, and the numbers at each end of the note do not match.
Any bill with mismatched or missing numbers is well worth saving because of its rarity. Another popular numbering oddity that can sometimes be found on paper money is what is known as a “palindrome.” The expression means something that reads the same from left or right. The word “RADAR” is an example of a classic palindrome. A valuable serial number would be one like B123454321B. Low numbers like A000000010A are also very much in demand by paper money collectors.
“Fake” Nickel Expected to Sell For $2.5 Million
Liberty Head nickels are not necessarily rare, but as a 1913 Liberty Head nickel that was illegally struck where only 5 are known to exist, such a coin can fetch a nice sum at auction. However, this specimen comes with an interesting story, which makes it one of a kind.
It is believed the nickel die was altered and the coin was illegally struck by mint worker Samuel W. Brown in late 1912 as the Liberty Head series nickel were coming to an end. The 5 coin set that was produced was sold by Brown to the American Numismatic Association Convention in Chicago in 1920 after the statute of limitations expired. The set exchanged hands a few times until the set was broken up in 1942. At this point, North Carolina collector, George O. Walton, acquired one of the coins in the mid 1940′s for a reported sum of $3,750. Tragically, Mr. Walton died in a car crash on March 9, 1962. The unusual coin was transported in the car along with hundreds of other coins that were scattered at the scene.
Mr. Walton’s sister, Melva Givens of Salem, Va, inherited the 1913 Liberty nickel. Since the story died with it’s owner, coin experts at that time declared the specimen a fake, as the date on the coin was too imprecise to be genuine.
Ms. Givens, inserted the coin in an envelope and stashed it away in a closet, never to be thought of again until 1992, when her son Ryan was preparing his mother’s estate after her death. The family attorney had some knowledge of the 1913 Liberty nickels and asked Ryan to examine the coin. “He looked at it and he told me he’d give me $5,000 for it right there”, Ryan said. Pending his siblings’ approval, Ryan declined the offer.
Thereafter, the siblings took the coin to the 2003 American Numismatic World’s Fair of Money in Baltimore, where the other four 1913 Liberty nickels were on display. After a team of rare coin experts examined the coin, they concluded it is indeed the missing 5th nickel from the set, due to the unique imperfections found under the date that each nickel in the set shared.
The coin has been on loan to the American Numismatic Association Money Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado to be exhibited nationwide.
The family have now decided that it is time to offer the nickel for sale to the public. Todd Imhof, executive vice president of Heritage Auctions expects the nickel to attract many high valued bids to challenge U.S. records for the sale of a single coin. Heritage Auctions estimate that the Walton nickel will sell for $2.5 million or more when it hits the auction block on April 25th in suburban Chicago.
“This is a trophy item that sort of transcends the hobby,” Imhof said. “It’s an interesting part of American history and there are collectors who look for something like this.”
Own your own Liberty nickel, which had it’s own controversial past, the “Racketeer” nickel