What Is a Single Star Bank Note?

Serial Numbers

• As manufactured by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing for the Federal Reserve System, each Federal Reserve Note has a unique serial number. Except for the $1 and $2 notes, all serial numbers begin with two letters, followed by eight numerals, and then a final letter. (One-dollar and two-dollar notes have a single letter at the beginning of their serial numbers.)

Printing Mistakes

• Among the hundreds of millions of notes made by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, some do not print correctly. These are removed and destroyed before being delivered to any of the Federal Reserve Banks.

Replacement Notes

• Each lot of notes produced must contain exactly the right number of notes, so they must be replaced. But reprinting the damaged ones with the same serial numbers would be an expensive and time-consuming process, so a special run of notes with new serial numbers is printed. The serial numbers of these notes contain a star at the end instead of a final letter, so that their numbers do not duplicate previously used serial numbers.

A Long-Standing Practice

• The star note system has been used since the 1920s, although U.S. Notes (red seal) replaced the first letter of the serial number instead of the last one, in contrast to the current practice with Federal Reserve Notes (green seal). Mistakes in printing haven't been that common over the years, affected fewer than one percent of all notes.

Star-Note Collectors

• The relative rarity of star notes, especially among notes produced at certain times for certain Federal Reserve districts, has made star-note collecting a sub-specialty of U.S. currency collecting. Some of the rarest star note examples, such as a Series 1928 $5 Kansas City note or the Series 1934B $5 Atlanta note, can trade for a few hundred dollars.