The Bizarre Trend for Collecting Banknotes with Interesting Serial Numbers

[Bimat]

Is your dollar bill worth thousands? The bizarre trend for collecting cash with 'interesting' serial codes

By ELLIE BUCHDAHL
PUBLISHED: 09:59 GMT, 17 September 2013 | UPDATED: 13:02 GMT, 17 September 2013

The next time you're holding a dollar bill, it might be worth looking further than the big number one - you could get more bang from your buck than you expected.

Ordinary low denomination bills are raking in thousands of dollars in an online trend that is centred on the eight-digit serial number which appears on each U.S. banknote.

'Unusual' bills are being bought, sold and hunted on the website CoolSerialNumbers.com,  with low serial numbers, from 00000001 to 00000100, being particularly sought after, a $1 bill with the serial number 00000002 going for $2,500.

The U.S.-based site lists all the different notes that collectors are looking out for and allows serial number fans to get in touch with one another.

There are categories such as 'solids' (where the digits repeat eight times), 'ladders' (12345678), 'radars' (01133110 - where the number reads the same left-to-right as right-to-left) and 'repeaters' (20012001 - the second half is the same as the first half).

Then there are 'radar repeaters' (12211221), 'super radars' (20000002 - all the internal digits are the same) and 'super repeaters' (where the first two digits are repeated four times, such as 63636363).

Dave Undis, the a Nashville musician and currency collector who runs the site, is happy to include some criteria that might go unnoticed to the untrained eye - such as a 'pi note' with the number 31415927.

A $5 bill with the number 33333333 is currently up for sale for $13,000, while a set of nine $20 bills running from 00000010 through to 00000090 can be bought for $1,800.

A Google+ link on the site allows you to scroll through a full catalogue of unusual serial numbers.

The site gets about 5,000 visitors a year, according to Undis, who says he has been collecting currency with 'cool serial numbers' for about 30 years.

The U.S. Government introduced numbers onto banknotes in 1928, and has always used eight digits.

So it is particularly unusual to find a banknote without a serial number - and the site regularly sells error notes without serial numbers.

Collectors have long been interested in rare and flawed money - and not just in the U.S.

In September last year, the Bank of England auctioned £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes with unusual serial numbers - such as those coming at the beginning or the end of a run, often characterised by the prefix A01.

In 2009, a batch of 20p pieces that had been minted without the date mark were valued at £50 - with one eBay seller appearing to make £7,100 from the sale of just one coin.

And it's not just about money, either - Yo-Yos.net is, as the name suggests, an online community for collectors of Yo-Yos with unusual serial numbers.

Source: Daily Mail

[Figleaf]

I guess all kinds of collecting is bizarre, but some are more bizarre than others, to paraphrase Orwell.

Banknote collecting, like coin collecting, is an effort to form a coherent and representative sample of some kind of money, usually restricted in place and time. Most collections do not add any scientific value, but they keep the owner happily busy and help his self-development considerably. Even modest collections have a worthwhile purpose.

The scientific and social usefulness of the collection diminishes as the object of the collection becomes less relevant to social life: you can learn more from a coin collection than from a comic book collection, but comic book collections can be more useful than a collection of matchbox labels or sugar bags.

The collector of remarkable serial numbers on banknotes does not collect banknotes. Whether an odd number is on a €5 banknote or a €10 banknote or a $1 banknote or a $5 banknote is not as relevant as the number itself. These collectors are collecting a small part of the design. There is nothing else to it. Anyone with a basic knowledge of math can work out the chance of a specific number occurring (the chance of 12345678 or 20132013 is exactly equal to the chance of finding your phone number or mine or a random number).

In collecting terms, the fun ends when the chase ends, so you must immediately start a new chase. There's nothing to study, explain or look up. There's a very limited wow factor, except among fellow travellers. I can imagine that the journalist calls it bizarre. However, I think soccer is bizarre, probably with highly similar arguments and yet, a significant part of the population of this planet finds it interesting. Maybe what's bizarre is individuals...

Peter

[FosseWay]

There's nowt so queer as folk, as they say in Yorkshire.

[SquareEarth]

In China there is the cult of '8', because the number sounds like the verb "getting rich" in Cantonese.

But the same word can also used to describe "attack" of a illness, like "asthma" attack, which happened to me almost every winter.

I therefore consider 8 an unlucky number...

"6" is a more reasonable lucky number, and people like repetitive "6"s (666 ).

Chuan

[dheer]

Most collections do not add any scientific value, but they keep the owner happily busy and help his self-development considerably.

The scientific and social usefulness of the collection diminishes as the object of the collection becomes less relevant to social life: you can learn more from a coin collection than from a comic book collection, but comic book collections can be more useful than a collection of matchbox labels or sugar bags.

I know of a person who gets eveything by his date of birth, all his cars [he is in transport business] have the same number, all the cell phones of his drivers have same 4 digit ending and anything else that needs numbers would have his 4 digits ...

In collecting terms, the fun ends when the chase ends, so you must immediately start a new chase.

What to chase becomes a thing to boast about, the desire to have something that only you have and everyone wants drives the interest more so adding it to the affordability factor.

[Bimat]

Mumbai's money-changer has a strange trade: Collecting notes with 'unique' numbers

Sugata Ghosh, ET Bureau Jan 11, 2014, 03.25AM IST

MUMBAI: The man looks over his glasses with a smile, his well-oiled hair neatly combed. Sitting next to him on the gaddi is his nephew, a portly young man who is sorting out currency notes of various denominations.

As you enter the room, they set aside the wads of notes to greet you. Besides a glass almirah displaying coins and medallions, there are two old-fashioned safes with the customary swastika mark.

With a broad grin, the person in his early fifties points at the Rs 5 note on his desk and says, "Take a look... Do you find anything interesting?" The typical reaction may be to cross-check the watermark, security thread and other features that distinguish a real from a counterfeit.

You are missing out on something he's trying to draw your attention to: it's the six-digit number next to the alphanumeric printed on the top right and bottom left. It reads: 160868. Does it ring a bell? No, you give up. "It's August 16, 1968, Arvind Kejriwal's birthday," he smiles again.

STRANGE BUSINESS

Is it a one-off ? He shakes his head and fishes out a tenner with the identical six digits. It's now the turn of the nephew.

He carefully opens a plastic folder with several notes of different values placed one after another. He picks the one with the number 021165. It makes little sense unless you are a Shah Rukh Khan fan, for whom the bill may be a collector's item with the star's birthday — November 2, 1965 — printed on it.

How do they get such bank notes? "Dhyaan rakhna padta hai...tarah tarah ke din dimaag mein rakhne padte hain," says Prakash Jain, the proprietor of the 96-year-old firm that has been a moneychanger, earning a nominal commission by supplying crisp currency notes in exchange for torn, soiled notes to merchants of Masjid Bunder, temple trusts, high-street banks and even government transport agencies.

"We no longer deal with temples," says Lalit Jain, the 29-year-old nephew. The window overlooks the road leading to the Mumba Devi temple and the congested bylanes of Zaveri Bazaar, the country's bullion hub.

Up a narrow, winding staircase, on the second floor of one of the many nondescript buildings that line the road, housing several jewellers, the Jains carry out their unusual business along with the age-old note-exchange trade.

Quick to segregate interesting numbers

Every morning, their boys along with other money-changers queue up at the Reserve Bank of India office to collect new notes in exchange for old ones of the same value.

It's a service the central bank offers, with amounts above a certain value being credited to the money-changers' bank accounts.

Jains can't choose the bills they collect from RBI, which releases new notes according to different series and serial numbers. But they are quick to segregate the ones that can be useful to them.

For instance, they have little interest in notes where the six-digit number begins with 32 or more.

OF FAITH, PASSION & FANS

But dates aren't the only thing on their mind as they check out the numbers. Lalit pulls out another folder of Rs 10 notes.

The first bill bears the number 000786, the numeric value of Quran's opening phrase, "In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful..." The next note has the number 001786, followed by 002786 with the last note in the folder having the digits 999786.

"It's not just Muslims, many Hindus too come for such notes," says Prakash. "We can't sell them like antiques, but it's difficult to put a price on these...People gift them as well as take them for personal collection.

Notes can last a lifetime," adds Lalit, underscoring the importance of the bills without getting into the premium they fetch. Understandably, it could all boil down to the buyer, his faith, belief and passions.

A string of notes with the number 000024 can signify 'Mahavir' — the 24th and the last Tirthankar. A person of the same faith could also be drawn to a number like 000108, that could remind her of the 108 names of Parshvanath Bhagavan.

It's a curious trade where Jains try to make coincidences happen. There's always that element of luck of the draw, having to wait for months trying to complete a chain; for instance, the Rs 500 note may be missing in the chain of notes of all denominations of Rs 5 to Rs 1,000 with an identical number.

They often ask regular customers to fetch such a note if they come across one in the course of their daily transactions; at times they are lucky.

Some numbers look different. Post 2006, RBI adopted the 'Star series' numbering system for replacement of defectively printed banknotes. These are exactly the same as existing 'Mahatma Gandhi series' notes, but have '*' (a star) between the prefix and the number.

CHANGING TIMES

The family shuns marketing and advertisements, relying more on word-of-mouth publicity. Almost a decade ago, the idea struck Prakash Jain as he sorted currency bills on a regular business day.

Source: Economic Times

[Figleaf]

We have a few threads on coins of Islam Shah Suri marked 1477. I wonder if that number could mean something in numerology.

Peter

[Bimat]

Serial killer of a gift! Now, say it with notes

TNN | Apr 19, 2015, 04.32 AM IST

MUMBAI: Most people who wish to gift someone a currency note where the serial numbers match special dates such as birthdays or anniversaries would try their luck at their local bank branch. But they have another source in an enterprising Mumbaikar.

The desire to present his 12-year-old daughter with something special on her birthday pushed real estate agent Kishore Kataria into a unique profession last year—collecting such currency notes.

The 51-year-old Mulund resident spends a better part of his day approaching moneylenders and banks for selective currency notes of a particular serial number. Recently, he hunted for two notes that matched the birthday of police constable Sonal Kamble—February 27, 1987. She had asked Kataria to collect notes in denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.

Kataria's diverse clientele includes several other policemen as well as advocates, hoteliers, businessmen, traders and students from Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai. "Last year, my friend Mahesh Thakkar came up with this idea when I was looking for something unique to gift my daughter Siddhi. I got the currency note framed and gifted it to her. She was overwhelmed."

On January 19, Kataria gifted Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria, on the occasion of his 58th birthday, framed currency notes that matched the date in denominations of Rs 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100.

Kataria said in today's "fast life" people tend to forget special days of their friends, relatives and even family. These special serial number notes keep the memory alive. "We often tend to forget our parents' birthdays and our own marriage anniversaries. If we frame such notes, they would remain with us forever and can even be passed to the next generation. Besides, every few years, currency notes keep changing and old ones become rare and difficult to find. How many of us possess old currency notes of Re 1, Rs 2 or Rs 5 today?"

But Kataria says finding currency notes of specific serial numbers is far from easy. Once he gets an order, he moves from one moneylender to another and even contacts banks for fresh serial number notes. "It's not that I walk in and get a particular note. Many a times I have to buy an entire bundle by paying extra or a premium to money lenders. Only one note may be useful; I have to stock up the rest for future customers."

Kataria charges anywhere between Rs 500 and Rs 3,000 as commission, depending on the number of notes ordered.

Reserve Bank of India officials said the central bank has nothing to do with the collector buying selective serial number notes by paying a premium.

Source: Times of India

[Bimat]

The article I posted is fine, but what was author thinking when he wrote the subject of the news!

Aditya

[Manfred1]

Indonesia 100,000 Rupiah "Ladder" note

[Manfred1]

Namibian 10 Dollar "Solid" note .... C also 3rd letter of the alphabet

[Manfred1]

South African 1 Rand "mirror" note

[Lori]

   "Mirror"serial

[Lori]

   Few more.......