Star Note Survey

With the introduction of the 18-subject sheets during Series 1935D, the BEP began the practice of skip-numbering sheets of currency. This created a problem, since it made it difficult to produce the partial print run required to make each complete block contain a round 100,000,000 notes.

To solve this problem, the BEP began instead to end each block with a full run that was composed partially of regular notes with high serial numbers and partially of star notes with unrelated serial numbers. However, a full run of star serial numbers was set aside for each such run, and so the result was a gap in the range of star serials printed.

Such star gaps apparently exist in all series, denominations, and types from Series 1935D on through Series 1974 (when the BEP abandoned these odd runs and instead began ending each complete block at a serial number less than 99999999). However, it was not until very late in this period that the BEP began to routinely keep track of these gaps in its records. Most of the time, the gaps were simply ignored, leading to (slightly) inflated recorded printage totals for the star notes.

These pages represent an attempt to locate all of these star gaps by the process of elimination. Since we know the number of star gaps which should exist in each series (the same as the number of complete regular blocks in that series) and the placement of each gap within its print run (the lowest positions of the block-ending run were used for the high-serial regular notes), it will theoretically be possible to identify all of the print runs containing star gaps by collecting reports of existing star notes from the relevant portions of all the other print runs in each series.

The drawback is that this will require perhaps several thousand reports of star notes, many from very narrow serial number ranges, and some from older series and higher denominations where survival rates are not particularly high. It is unlikely, therefore, that this project will reach completion, but there seems to be a reasonable chance of success for at least some of the series.

The following pages list the star note ranges needed and the star serials I've been able to verify so far. Most of these have been obtained by searching through Ebay auctions; some are from my own collection; and some have been reported by others. If you have any star notes in your possession from unreported ranges in these lists, please report them to me here. Thanks!

• Series 1935D to 1935H $1 Silver Certificates
• Series 1957 to 1957B $1 Silver Certificates
• Series 1953 to 1953C $5 United States Notes and Silver Certificates
• Series 1950A to 1950E $5, $10, and $20 Federal Reserve Notes
• Series 1963 to 1963A $5, $10, and $20 Federal Reserve Notes
• Series 1969 to 1974 $5, $10, and $20 Federal Reserve Notes

The BEP seems to have recorded the star ranges more precisely in some cases than in others. It will be noted that many of the gaps in the $5 FRN and 1935E $1 SC stars are already marked in the survey tables, from the BEP data. There are no survey tables for the $1 FRNs because complete star note data from the BEP is already available; for this, see the pages for each series. On the other hand, surveys for the $2, $50, and $100 FRNs, the Series 1963 through 1966A USNs, and the 1953-series $2 USNs and $10 SCs are not needed because these series, having no complete blocks of regular notes, will have no star gaps.

The long version of the explanation

For an example of what's going on here, consider two specific runs of star notes, runs 49G and 50G from the Series 1935G $1 SCs. During the era in which these notes were printed, the BEP's standard press run consisted of 20,000 sheets of 18 notes each, for a total of 360,000 notes. Each run was therefore assigned 360,000 consecutive serial numbers. The sheets within the run were skip-numbered with skips of 20,000 serials between positions.

Print run 49G was a normal run of stars. Being the 49th run of the *..G block, it received the 49th group of 360,000 serials in the block. Since 49 times 360,000 is 17,640,000, the serial range for this run works out to be * 172 80001 G through * 176 40000 G. Therefore, the sheets of this run would have been numbered as follows:

First sheet				Second sheet				. . .		20,000th sheet
A * 172 80001 G	G * 174 00001 G	M * 175 20001 G		A * 172 80002 G	G * 174 00002 G	M * 175 20002 G				A * 173 00000 G	G * 174 20000 G	M * 175 40000 G
B * 173 00001 G	H * 174 20001 G	N * 175 40001 G		B * 173 00002 G	H * 174 20002 G	N * 175 40002 G				B * 173 20000 G	H * 174 40000 G	N * 175 60000 G
C * 173 20001 G	I * 174 40001 G	O * 175 60001 G		C * 173 20002 G	I * 174 40002 G	O * 175 60002 G				C * 173 40000 G	I * 174 60000 G	O * 175 80000 G
D * 173 40001 G	J * 174 60001 G	P * 175 80001 G		D * 173 40002 G	J * 174 60002 G	P * 175 80002 G				D * 173 60000 G	J * 174 80000 G	P * 176 00000 G
E * 173 60001 G	K * 174 80001 G	Q * 176 00001 G		E * 173 60002 G	K * 174 80002 G	Q * 176 00002 G				E * 173 80000 G	K * 175 00000 G	Q * 176 20000 G
F * 173 80001 G	L * 175 00001 G	R * 176 20001 G		F * 173 80002 G	L * 175 00002 G	R * 176 20002 G				F * 174 00000 G	L * 175 20000 G	R * 176 40000 G

Notice that the first 20,000 serials of the run all come from plate position A, the next 20,000 serials all come from position B, and so on. This rotation of serial numbers against plate positions holds true in every block, so that it is possible to calculate a note's plate position from its serial number. (This fact can actually be used as a check for counterfeit notes, since counterfeiters frequently don't bother to number their notes correctly.)

From the last run of the C..J block

On the other hand, print run 50G was a partial run of stars, containing a large gap. This run of stars should have received serials * 176 40001 G through * 180 00000 G; but it happened to come up for production at the same time the regular notes were reaching the end of the C..J block and rolling over to D..J. Now the C..J block needed to contain a round 100,000,000 notes, but this number is not a multiple of the 360,000-note print run. After 277 runs of C..J notes, the serialling had reached C 997 20000 J, leaving only 280,000 notes still to be printed in the block. These 280,000 serials would take up the first fourteen positions, A through N, of another print run. The remaining 80,000 notes of that run, positions O through R, couldn't be used to start the D..J block, since then the note D 000 00001 J would end up with plate position O instead of the appropriate A. To avoid wasting these 80,000 notes entirely, the BEP used the last four positions of the print run to print star notes. These stars were given the serials from star run 50G, the next run up for production, that were appropriate to their positions, O through R. The serials assigned to positions A through N of run 50G were thus lost in the shuffle, and never printed at all. The resulting conflation of runs C278J and 50G was numbered like this:

First sheet				Second sheet				. . .		20,000th sheet
A C 997 20001 J	G C 998 40001 J	M C 999 60001 J		A C 997 20002 J	G C 998 40002 J	M C 999 60002 J				A C 997 40000 J	G C 998 60000 J	M C 999 80000 J
B C 997 40001 J	H C 998 60001 J	N C 999 80001 J		B C 997 40002 J	H C 998 60002 J	N C 999 80002 J				B C 997 60000 J	H C 998 80000 J	N C 000 00000 J
C C 997 60001 J	I C 998 80001 J	O * 179 20001 G		C C 997 60002 J	I C 998 80002 J	O * 179 20002 G				C C 997 80000 J	I C 999 00000 J	O * 179 40000 G
D C 997 80001 J	J C 999 00001 J	P * 179 40001 G		D C 997 80002 J	J C 999 00002 J	P * 179 40002 G				D C 998 00000 J	J C 999 20000 J	P * 179 60000 G
E C 998 00001 J	K C 999 20001 J	Q * 179 60001 G		E C 998 00002 J	K C 999 20002 J	Q * 179 60002 G				E C 998 20000 J	K C 999 40000 J	Q * 179 80000 G
F C 998 20001 J	L C 999 40001 J	R * 179 80001 G		F C 998 20002 J	L C 999 40002 J	R * 179 80002 G				F C 998 40000 J	L C 999 60000 J	R * 180 00000 G

(Notice that one note ends up with the number C 000 00000 J, because the numbering cylinder does not have enough digits to print C 1000 00000 J. This note with serial number zero is considered an error, and will itself be replaced by a star note after the sheets are cut.) After this rather peculiar run, the next run of regular notes would be run D001J, covering serials D 000 00001 J through D 003 60000 J; and the next run of star notes would be run 51G, covering serials * 180 00001 G through * 183 60000 G. The regular and star notes would not mix together again in this way until the end of the D..J block, when another star run would end up missing 280,000 notes in order to allow for the D..J block to be completed.

This kind of part-regular, part-star run was needed at the end of every completed block from late in Series 1935D (when the BEP began skip-numbering its currency) until late in Series 1974 (when it was decided to just omit these oddball runs entirely, not using the highest serials of each regular block at all). At various times, though, the exact numbering involved was different:

• For Series 1935D and the early parts of Series 1935E, 1950A, and 1953, the standard print run was 8000 sheets of 18 notes each, or 144,000 notes. It took 694 such print runs to bring the serialling of a regular block up to 999 36000. Then the 695th print run would contain 64,000 regular notes and 80,000 stars, leading to a gap of 64,000 missing star serials.
• For the rest of the above series and all of Series 1935F-H, 1950B-E, and 1953A-C, the standard print run was 20,000 sheets of 18 notes each, or 360,000 notes, as in the above example. It took 277 such print runs to reach serial 997 20000, and the remaining 280,000 notes in the regular block led to a gap of 280,000 missing star serials.
• For Series 1957 through 1974, the standard print run was 20,000 sheets of 32 notes each, or 640,000 notes. It took 156 such print runs to bring the serialling of a regular block up to 998 40000. Then the 157th print run would contain 160,000 regular notes and 480,000 stars, leading to a gap of 160,000 missing star serials.

No gap exists in run 49G

In all three cases, the star gap always fell at the beginning of a run of star notes, since it was the lowest plate positions of the run that were used for the high-serial regular notes completing the block. This is why my star note surveys work: By finding a star note from the lowest 64,000 or 280,000 or 160,000 serials of a star print run, as appropriate, it is possible to prove that that run did not contain a gap. For example, I have in my collection a 1935G $1 SC numbered * 174 16688 G, from plate position G of star run 49G; the existence of this note proves that run 49G does not contain a gap. Eventually, by eliminating enough print runs in this way, we can zero in on the few runs that really do contain gaps. For example, in the case of the Series 1935G No Motto SCs, there are a total of 24 star print runs, and two completed blocks of regular notes (B..J and C..J), so there will be two star runs with gaps and 22 without. The 1935G survey table shows that I've already verified the existence of stars from the lower 280,000 serials of 22 different print runs, so the only two print runs left over must be the ones with the gaps:

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SERIES 1935G NO MOTTO   (signatures Smith-Dillon)   two gaps expected

Run#   First 280,000 serials assigned     Actual serial known to exist
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 30G   * 104 40001 G  -  * 107 20000 G    * 106 92384 G  [in my collection]
 31G   * 108 00001 G  -  * 110 80000 G    * 109 90949 G  [in my collection]
 32G   * 111 60001 G  -  * 114 40000 G    * 113 96861 G  [in my collection]
 33G   * 115 20001 G  -  * 118 00000 G    * 115 55034 G  [in my collection]
 34G   * 118 80001 G  -  * 121 60000 G    * 119 22091 G  [in my collection]
 35G   * 122 40001 G  -  * 125 20000 G    * 124 09882 G  [in my collection]
 36G   * 126 00001 G  -  * 128 80000 G    * 128 52550 G  [in my collection]
 37G   * 129 60001 G  -  * 132 40000 G    . none: B278J  [process of elimination]
 38G   * 133 20001 G  -  * 136 00000 G    * 134 97092 G  [in my collection]
 39G   * 136 80001 G  -  * 139 60000 G    * 139 14182 G  [in my collection]
 40G   * 140 40001 G  -  * 143 20000 G    * 143 12490 G  [in my collection]
 41G   * 144 00001 G  -  * 146 80000 G    * 144 48624 G  [in my collection]
 42G   * 147 60001 G  -  * 150 40000 G    * 148 83112 G  [in my collection]
 43G   * 151 20001 G  -  * 154 00000 G    * 151 35441 G  [in my collection]
 44G   * 154 80001 G  -  * 157 60000 G    * 156 11703 G  [in my collection]
 45G   * 158 40001 G  -  * 161 20000 G    * 160 14452 G  [in my collection]
 46G   * 162 00001 G  -  * 164 80000 G    * 162 07896 G  [in my collection]
 47G   * 165 60001 G  -  * 168 40000 G    * 166 56444 G  [in my collection]
 48G   * 169 20001 G  -  * 172 00000 G    * 171 65040 G  [in my collection]
 49G   * 172 80001 G  -  * 175 60000 G    * 174 16688 G  [in my collection]
 50G   * 176 40001 G  -  * 179 20000 G    . none: C278J  [process of elimination]
 51G   * 180 00001 G  -  * 182 80000 G    * 181 63096 G  [in my collection]
 52G   * 183 60001 G  -  * 186 40000 G    * 184 01637 G  [in my collection]
 53G   * 187 20001 G  -  * 190 00000 G    * 189 85368 G  [in my collection]
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(This is also why the serial ranges in the star note survey tables don't cover all the star notes printed in the relevant series: A star note from the high end of its print run doesn't help us here, since that note would have been printed no matter whether its print run contained a star gap or not. The survey tables only list the lowest serials from each print run--the serials that might not exist, if the run contains a star gap.)