Coin collectors often collect items that aren’t exactly coins, but are similar to coins. For example, many coin collectors also collect paper money, medals, or tokens. Tokens could be either patriotic tokens, dating from Civil War times, store tokens, and tax tokens. Today’s article will focus on collecting paper money.
Our currency today is made up of what is called Federal Reserve Notes. These notes are obligations of the U.S. and are a lien on the assets of the one of the twelve Federal Reserve banks.
Prior to the issuance of these notes, our government produced both silver certificates and gold certificates. When these circulated, they were backed by the silver or gold of the U.S. government. Once these were declared obsolete, one could take these to a bank and trade them in for gold or silver. I seem to recall, in the mid 1960’s that silver certificates were cashed in for $1.35 in silver.
That program ended decades ago, but both silver and gold certificates are collectible. Silver certificates have a little bit of value above face value, while gold certificates have much higher premiums. Ask the old timers in your family if they have some of these “socked” away in the sock drawer.
As we’ve discussed before, there are some coins still in circulation that have value beyond their face value. In the same way, there are some paper money items in circulation that have value beyond their face value, too.
For example, recently a young man was in a convenience store about to pay for gasoline with a $100 bill. The man behind him asked to look at the bill before he spent it. . . he ended up paying the young man $140 for the $100 bill!
This bill was a 1974 J (Kansas City Federal Reserve) star note. Star notes, while not common, can be found in circulation. These are replacement notes. In the printing process, it is inevitable that some notes will be smudged, torn, or otherwise damaged. When these are found, they are removed and notes with a new serial number and a star replace them. Error rates are pretty low, so star notes are going to be limited, making them rare. The star will be right next to both serial numbers.
Start watching for star notes in your paper money, and don’t forget that search for old paper money next time you’re at Gramps house!
The Brown County Coin Club meets on the second Tuesday of each month at the Austin Avenue Church of Christ. Meetings provide a great opportunity to learn all about coin and currency collecting. There’s probably at least one club member who shares an interest with you and would guide you in the basics. Get involved in coin collecting!
We hope to see you on July 12, at 7:00, for our next meeting. Call Bill Cooper at 325-642-2128 or me at 325-217-4129 for more information.
