By Alan FarnhamSeptember 24, 2013
When the Federal Reserve Board releases its new, redesigned $100 bills on October 8, how much do you suppose they'll each be worth? For some of them, much more than $100.
Depending on their serial numbers, their value to currency-collectors could go as high as $15,000 each, according to the Boston Globe.
The Globe explains that collectors view certain 8-digit serial numbers as "fancier" (meaning more rare, and thus more collectible) than others. The fanciest numbers, according to collectors, include ones exceptionally low: A new $100 bill with the serial number 00000001, for example, might fetch up to $15,000.
There will be more than one such bill, because each issuing Federal Reserve Bank prefaces the serial number with a letter code designating which bank produced the bill.
Other types of "fancy" numbers are highly sought after. These include "ladders," which have their numbers in sequence (e.g., 87654321), "repeaters," which have two sets of the same four digits (e.g., 41124112), and "solids," which have eight of the same digit (e.g., 44444444).
Dustin Johnston, director of currency for Heritage Auctions in Dallas, tells the Globe that other kinds of bills, regardless of their denomination or age, may also be collectible, depending on the fanciness of their serial numbers.
Got a fancy-numbered bill? To find out what it's worth, you can contact Heritage Auctions or another auction house specializing in currency; or you can consult CoolSerialNumbers.com, which maintains a regularly-updated want list of numbers being sought by collectors.
