Any Paper Currency Collectors?

[jkerouac]

OK, I know we all like to make money and have lovely currency in our wallets -- until we spend it. But I am looking for some advice regarding collectable paper currency, and I am hoping that someone here can assist.

My father gave my wife and me sheets of uncut currency for Christmas. He knows that neither of us are coin or currency collectors, but said that choosing the right gifts has become too difficult, and he figured that money is always in fashion. He got that part right, but he is in his 80s, and as his son (and power of attorney in case he becomes incapacitated), I hope to high hell that he didn't pay too much. But I'm also not going to ask him how much he paid.

In any case, my wife and I each received sheets of singles, fives, tens, and twenty-dollar bills. These are uncut sequential sheets of four bills printed in the years between 1996 and 2004.

As I said, neither of us are collectors, and although I am sure that these uncut sheets would experience a reasonable level of appreciation if we hold onto them for 15 or 20 years, the very notion of holding onto them for that long for that purpose alone seems unrealistic.

My wife took hers to a bank branch and they didn't have a clue how to deal with them. That is probably just as well. I took one sheet, a series of four $1 bills, to a local coin shop and the guy offered me $6 for it, saying that it really doesn't have numismatic value, but that he could probably sell it for $10 to someone who would frame it and put it on their wall. He would also take the rest of my sheets off my hands, presumably at a similar markup, but I didn't ask since I didn't have the other sheets with me.

The US Bureau of Engraving and Printing sells sheets of four uncut singles for $15.50 and series of four $20 bills for $112. That suggests to me that the fair market price is somewhere between the Bureau's price and the local coin shop's price. At the same time, I see many offers of uncut sheets for 20-25% markup on eBay which seem to go without buyers.

I'm a bit perplexed what to do. I have discarded the idea of using the paper cutter to slice them apart to spend on their face value. At the same time, I don't expect that I could get the same price as the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing. It's hard for me to use ebay as a gauge because most sales seem to be fixed price, and those that do involve bidding are mostly without bids.

I see references to "Star Notes," and my 10s and 20s have stars after the serial numbers, but I don't know what that signifies. I assume from the listings that I have read that star notes merit a premium at resale.

Advice/suggestions appreciated.

Thanks. This is such a knowledgeable crowd that I know that I'll get some extremely constructive advice.

[thomasng]

I collect paper money

What I see, it would be in your interest to let them go to the numismatic guy. Uncut US notes aren't worth much over their face value because of the large supply available. Unfortunately, the BEP does perpetuate a ripoff with selling the sheet at such a markup when it's actually less effort to them not to cut the notes. A lot of collectors do not touch sheets because of the inability to keep them in perfect condition, you have to roll them and you rarely have the space to lay them flat in storage.

As for star notes, they are inserted into bundles of new notes that are found with printing errors. After the notes are produced, they are checked for errors at many stages, and normally after the notes are cut and numbered, machines weed out the notes that have printing or cutting errors. In place of this damaged note, a prepared stack of notes with stars at the end of the numbers are inserted. It would be too costly to make a note with the same serial number again, so this is a cost effective method to replace a damaged note.

[jkerouac]

I collect paper money

What I see, it would be in your interest to let them go to the numismatic guy. Uncut US notes aren't worth much over their face value because of the large supply available. Unfortunately, the BEP does perpetuate a ripoff with selling the sheet at such a markup when it's actually less effort to them not to cut the notes. A lot of collectors do not touch sheets because of the inability to keep them in perfect condition, you have to roll them and you rarely have the space to lay them flat in storage.

As for star notes, they are inserted into bundles of new notes that are found with printing errors. After the notes are produced, they are checked for errors at many stages, and normally after the notes are cut and numbered, machines weed out the notes that have printing or cutting errors. In place of this damaged note, a prepared stack of notes with stars at the end of the numbers are inserted. It would be too costly to make a note with the same serial number again, so this is a cost effective method to replace a damaged note.

Thanks very much, Admin. Your insights are appreciated, as always.

Cheers!