You better think twice before you spend that $1 bill in your wallet.
[ Have any $2 bills? You could be in for a big surprise ]
Currency collectors in the United States are willing to pay up to $150,000 for rare $1 bills that feature a particular printing error, according to the Wealthy Nickel.
Batches of dollar bills printed in 2014 and 2016 slipped into circulation after a misprint by the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing went overlooked.
“This miscommunication resulted in dollars printed with duplicate serial numbers, technically counterfeiting their currency. Typically, every bill in circulation has a unique serial number to identify it,” Wealthy Nickel wrote. “Neither misprint was caught by the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and now currency collectors are clamoring to find matching pairs of dollar bills with these duplicate serial numbers.”
There are 6.4 million pairs of $1 bills with matching serial numbers and only nine pairs have been matched to date.
How do you identify dollar bills worth up to $150,000? There are three things to look for:
- The series date located near the photograph of George Washington must read “Series 2013″
- The bill must have a “B” Federal Reserve Seal above the serial number
- The serial number must end with a star (*) and fall between B00000001* – B00250000* or B03200001*-B09600000*
The true value in owning a misprinted bill is pairing to a second bill with a matching serial number. The Wealthy Nickle noted that there have been 37 complete pairs identified so far.
The Wealthy Nickle also pointed out that serial numbers can be entered into Project 2013B’s database of over 36,000 serial numbers.
Matched and graded pairs of misprinted bills can fetch anywhere from $20,000 to $150,000, experts have estimated.
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