Numbering on modern notes

The only type of U.S. currency commonly found in circulation today is the FederalReserve Note. Up through Series 1995, all FRNs had serial numbers consistingof one letter, eight digits, and one letter, such as A12345678B; now only the $1 and $2 notes still use this form. The first letter of such a serial number identifies theFederal Reserve Bank which issued the note; since there are twelve FRBs, thisletter is always between A and L. The last letter has no particular meaning; itmerely advances through the alphabet as each block of notes is printed. The letter Ois not used because of its similarity to the digit 0, and the letter Z is not usedbecause it is reserved for specimen notes or test printings. On some notes, a star appears in place of the last letter. The star indicates that the note is a replacement for another note that was found to be defective or damaged during printing (see the section on star notes below). The eight digits can be anything from 00000001 to 99999999, but in recent years the highest serial numbers have been reserved for the BEP's souvenir uncut sheets of currency, and therefore not issued for circulation.

Serial numbers X9999999 - $1 Federal Reserve Notes 099999 399999 7999999 Trailing 0s - $1 Federal Reserve Notes 88888800. 0-1 binary serial numbers - $1 small size Silver Certificates 01000000 Serial numbers 9999999 - any size/type/denomination. I also understand that the Federal Reserve Banks provide the directory solely as a service to financial institutions and other authorized users to help.

The recently redesigned Federal Reserve Notes, beginning with Series 1996, have twoletters rather than one at the beginning of the serial number. On these notes, thefirst letter corresponds to the series of the note: Series 1996 notes have serial numbers beginning with A; Series 1999, numbers beginning with B; Series 2001, with C; Series 2003, with D; Series 2003A, with F; Series 2006, with H; and Series 2006A, with K. The notes of Series 2004, beginning the next redesign, have serial numbers beginning with E; Series 2004A, with G; Series 2006, with I; Series 2009, with J; Series 2009A, with L; Series 2013, with M; Series 2017, with N; and Series 2017A, with P. (Note that the 2006 series designation has been used for notes of two different design generations, and that it is paired with a different serial prefix letter in each case.) The second letter of each serial number now represents the issuing FRB and ranges from A through L. The last letter still can be anything but O or Z, and is still occasionally replaced by a star, with the same meaning as before.

Numbering on obsolete notes

On some older note types which are no longer commonly found in circulation, theletters of the serial number were used differently. United States Notes, SilverCertificates, and Gold Certificates were not issued by the Federal Reserve Banks, sothe first letter of their serial numbers, like the last letter, only served todistinguish different blocks; it had no particular meaning. The order of the blockswas therefore different as well: after a complete block of serials with the lettersA.A was printed, the next block would use letters B.A, and so on. The letter Z wasstill in use then, so after Y.A would come Z.A and then A.B. (Note: presumably theZ would also have been used on Federal Reserve Notes back then, if it had been needed,but the serial numbers of the FRNs never got so high.) The letter O has always beenskipped, however. For these older note types, replacement notes had a star in place of the first letter of the serial, rather than the last letter.

National Bank Note, type 2

National Currency used a different numbering system entirely--in fact, more accurately, it used two different systems, since a change was made to the numbering in 1933. The first small-size Nationals, printed between 1929 and 1933 and known as 'Type 1', had serial numbers consisting of six digits with a letter at each end, such as A012345A. For each issuing bank, six blocks of serial numbers were used simultaneously: the first six notes would be numbered A000001A through F000001A, the next six A000002A through F000002A, and so on. If a single bank issued more than six million notes of a denomination (an extremely rare occurrence), then F999999A would be followed by A000001B through F000001B and so forth. In addition to the serial number, each note also carried the charter number of the issuing bank, printed in black on each end of the note. The 'Type 2' National Bank Notes printed from 1933 to 1935 used a different serial number format, with the last letter omitted; thus the notes had serials such as A012345. In this system, only one block was used at a time for a given bank, so the sequence of serial numbers would be A000001, A000002, A000003, and so on. If the A block was exhausted, the letter would be changed to B; again, this happened quite rarely. These notes also had the issuing bank's charter number printed four times rather than two; the two added charter numbers were printed in brown, next to the serial numbers. In neither of the two numbering systems were replacement notes indicated by stars; instead, a defective note was replaced by printing a new note with the identical serial number, including the letter(s).

Federal Reserve Bank Notes, despite their similarities to Nationals, followed the same serial numbering system as Federal Reserve Notes, since they were issued by particular FRBs.

Prior to 1928, the large-size notes of all types used a variety of different serial numbering systems. The number of digits in a serial number, the presence of prefix and suffix letters, and the meaning of those letters when they appeared all varied considerably over time and between types. On many early notes, decorative symbols were used instead of letters at the beginning and/or end of a serial number. Some early National Bank Notes even had two different serial numbers with distinct meanings, one counting notes issued to a particular bank and the other counting the total number of notes issued to all banks.

Star notes

Federal Reserve Note Serial Number Lookup

Star notes are replacements for other notes damaged during the printing process. The term 'star note' comes from the small star which replaces one of the letters in the serial number on these notes. On Federal Reserve Notes and Federal Reserve Bank Notes, the star is placed at the end of the serial number; on notes of other types, it is placed at the beginning.

Replacement note, Series 1928-1934D

Not a replacement note!

If a damaged or misprinted note is discovered before the third printing stage, inwhich the serial numbers are applied, it is simply discarded and destroyed. But if adefective note is found after the serial numbers have been printed, it mustbe replaced by another note so that the count of notes issued will remain accurate. Until about 1910, the BEP would actually print a replacement note with the same serial number (including letters) as the defective note; however, as production levels increased, this became rather time-consuming.

To speed up the process, star notes were introduced. The BEP first prints a small quantity of notes with star serial numbers, and then uses these to replace any damaged or misprinted notes discovered during the main print run. The serial number on a starnote is not related to the serial number of the defective note it replaces; indeed, adefective note may even be replaced by a star note from a different series, or (in thecase of Federal Reserve Notes) from a different Federal Reserve district.

Even after the introduction of star notes, however, the BEP continued to use the old method of individually printed replacement notes in some instances. For any notes which were printed in extremely small print runs, it was simpler to reprint each defective note than to prepare a tiny number of star notes in advance. Therefore, no star notes were printed for the small-size National Bank Notes, $5000 or $10000 Federal Reserve Notes, or $10000 or $100000 Gold Certificates. None of these have been in production since the 1940s; and since that time, the BEP has been using the system of star replacement notes for all denominations and types of U.S. currency.

Three different-looking stars have been used in these replacement serial numbers over the years. Most recently, a small hollow star is used; some early small-size notes used a larger solid star; all large-size star replacement notes used a large hollow star. It should be mentioned that a few series of large-size notes can be found with a solid star in the serial number, but these are not replacement notes. Rather, the solid star is one of many different characters that were used to mark one or both ends of a serial number in the years before it became traditional to use only alphabet letters for that purpose.

<

Federal Reserve Serial Number Lookup