In small size currency, prior to the Series 1996 $20, $50 and $100 notes, a note's serial number uniquely identifies that note within the note's type, denomination and series. The serial number on small size currency was standardized to eight digits, with a single letter prefix and single letter suffix. All letters but 'O' are used in the prefix and suffix letters - more or less.
2003 $2 Star Note Premium 12-District Federal Reserve Note Set, Identical Serial Numbers A00001324. through L00001324. $5 2003A $1 FRN 'Poker Note', Five Nines Serial Number. FiscalData.treasury.gov is our brand-new site featuring federal financial data in machine-readable formats. Explore and download the data today! Explore and download the data today! Currently, callers to 844-284-2676 may experience longer than normal wait times. If a sheet of notes was damaged or destroyed, it was replaced by a Replacement sheet. Replacement sheet notes are identified by a. (star) next to the serial numbers. 1934 Notes with yellow or brown seals are WW II emergency money, issued either for Hawaii or North Africa. See the FAQ for more information on various currency types and their use. As there are 12 Federal Reserve Banks, this letter can range from A to L, with A representing Boston and L representing San Francisco. The eight numerical digits that follow represent a unique ID number. This number increases sequentially as each bill is printed. Using these digits alone, there would be a possible 99,999,999 bills issued per bank. Solid Serial Numbers on Currency – Values and Pricing. If a note has the serial number that is all the same number then it is known as a solid serial number. Example of a Solid Serial: B11111111A Not a Solid Serial Number: B09999999A. Solid Serial numbers are really the kings of the fancy serial number world.
A12345678B
The number itself starts with 00000001, and runs through 99999999. What happens next depends on the type of note it is, although in recent decades, there is only one type of note in circulation. But, let's start with the old ones:
Serial Numbers on Silver Certificates, Gold Certificates and United States Notes
For Silver Certificates, Gold Certificates and United States Notes, after the serial number reaches 99999999, the prefix letter is changed. Only after the prefix letter has reached 'Z' will the suffix letter change, as illustrated:
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Y00000001A
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Y99999999A
Z00000001A
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Z99999999A
A00000001B
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Using this numbering scheme, we have 99,999,999 possible digit combinations, by 25 possible prefix letters, by 25 possible suffix letters, producing 62,499,999,375 different combinations. If they used '00000000' it'd be an even 62,500,000,000 combinations, but they don't. Presumably, if this ever happened, they'd have had to start a new series to allow them to reset the serial number back to A00000001A. Fortunately, this never happened.
What did happen was that occasionally, errors would be made in the printing process, and those errors would be caught before released into circulation. Those notes would be destroyed and replaced with a note that had a '*' in place of the prefix letter, and serial numbers starting with *00000001A. Should *99999999A be printed, the next 'star note' would continue at *00000001B. This added another 2,499,999,975 possible combinations, which of course, probably never happened.
Serial Numbers on Federal Reserve Notes
With Federal Reserve Notes (the only type we have anymore), the numbering works a little differently. On these notes, the prefix letter corresponds to the Federal Reserve Bank's district. As there are 12 districts, the prefix letter will existing in the range A-L. As of writing, within a Federal Reserve District, the prefix letter is never incremented; after serial number x99999999A, the suffix letter is incremented, as in:
B00000001A
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B99999999A
B00000001B
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As with the other types of notes, those replaced due to errors in printing contain a '*' in the serial number, this time as the suffix. Thus, for each Federal Reserve Bank, there are 2,499,999,975 possible regular serial numbers, plus 99,999,999 possible star notes. Having recently seen $1 notes in the B..X block, I have to think that this has probably already happened. What they've done about this, I don't know.
The New Stuff
With the introduction of the Series 1996 $20, $50 and $100 notes, another letter was added to the serial number prefix to uniquely identify the note within the note's denomination. This letter is incremented with each series. Thus, serial numbers are eleven characters, starting with the series letter, followed by the Federal Reserve District letter, the eight digit serial number, and single suffix letter.
Other SerialNumber Factoids
Identifying Bogus Error Notes
One interesting factiod concerning recent series of the smaller denominations is that the higher serial numbers (say, x95000000x and up) are reserved for uncut sheets sold by the Treasury. Anyone who wants to can buy one of these, either at the Treasury or by mail. You can paper your wall with them, frame them, or even cut them apart and spend them (although given what the government charges for these sheets, it wouldn't be very cost effective).
Unfortunately, some enterprising miscreants have been buying these things, cutting them apart incorrectly, and selling them as error notes, as if they were miscut currency. Most currency collectors aren't fooled by this, although many other people apparently are.
Sequential Serial Numbers
Another interesting factoid is that since the introduction of the 18 subject sheet, two adjacent notes on an uncut sheet will not bear sequential serial numbers. Serial numbers are in fact assigned sequentially from sheet to sheet, with notes on the same sheet bearing numbers separated by gaps of thousands. This is done so that if one took a stack of one hundred uncut sheets, and bulk cut them, you'd have stacks of 100 sequentially numbered notes without requiring any further sorting. Interestingly, this means that within a block of serial numbers, the higher numbered notes are printed first,so that the lower numbered notes will appear on the top of the stack.
Federal Reserve Note Serial Number Lookup
Serial Number Ink Color
Federal Reserve Note Serial Number Lookup
You've probably noticed that the serial number is not printed in black ink. For small size US currency, you can generally determine the type of note by the color of ink used to print the Treasury seal and serial number (with some exceptions in emergency currency printed during World War II).
Each note of the same denomination has its own serial number. Up through Series 1995, all Federal Reserve notes had serial numbers consisting of 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 the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) which issued the note; since there are 12 FRBs, this letter is always between A and L. The last letter advances through the alphabet when all eight character serial numbers have been printed for a specific Federal Reserve Bank within the same series. At the time of a series change, the suffix letter returns to the letter A and repeats the cycle.
Serial Number Lookup Warranty
The letter O is not used because of its similarity to the digit 0, and the letter Z is not used because it is reserved for test printings. On some notes, a star appears in place of the last letter. When an imperfect sheet is detected during the manufacturing process after the serial number has been overprinted, it must be replaced with a new sheet. A 'star' sheet is used to replace the imperfect sheet. Reusing an exact serial number to replace an imperfect note is costly and time consuming. A 'star' note has its own special serial number followed by a star in place of a suffix letter.
Federal Reserve Serial Number Lookup
Federal Reserve notes, beginning with Series 1996, have two letters rather than one at the beginning of the serial number. On these notes, the first letter corresponds to the series of the note and 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.