The US government will release the new hundred-dollar bills on October 8. Some of those bills will be worth considerably more than the others. The serial numbers on these bills determine their market value, which can be up to $15,000.
According to the Boston Globe, currency collectors pay good money for unique patterns of the eight-digit serial code.
The Globe explains that the US government has numbered its money since 1928, and the money gets stamped in ascending serial numbers.
Dustin Johnston, director of currency for Heritage Auctions in Dallas, claims that the bill containing the serial number 00000001 will be worth $10,000 to $15,000. Because the Bureau of Engraving and Printing will begin with higher numbers first, the low numbered serial numbers are even more rare and will be worth even more this year.
Other bills that will be worth more than $100 include “ladders,” which are serial numbers where the digits run in sequence, such as 12345678 or 54321098 – the market value can be as high as $1,300. Other special serial codes include “radars,” where the digits appear as a palindrome, such as 35299253, “repeaters,” where the second half of the code is the same as the first, such as 31993199, “binaries,” where the serial code only features two numbers, such as 00110001, “solids,” where all numbers are the same, such as 99999999 and “super radars,” where all digits 2-7 are the same, such as 46666664. There are also a handful of other random combinations that pay out, such as the digits of pi or currency collectors’ birthdates and anniversaries.
USA Today reports that bank employees are usually able to trade in your bills with ordinary numbers for fancy ones, if they have them. The money bricks make it even easier for employees, since they list the range of serial numbers of the bills.
The new $100 bills, which will be distributed in just a few weeks, will feature shiny gold in the lower right-hand corners to discourage counterfeiting.
If you think you’ve found a bill with a unique serial number, you can see what it’s worth at CoolSerialNumbers.com.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
