Value of a 1963 Dollar Bill?
I have a 1963 five-dollar bill from my Grandmother, who told me that it was ‘special’. I was wondering what about this bill makes it important. It appears to be a normal note, but the seal is in red, not green. I know that this has no worth to a collector because of it’s condition, but it has been bugging me lately, since I can’t find any information on it other than an ‘urban legend involving the Kennedy assassination’.
edit; found a picture of it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_$5_1963_USN.jpg
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10 Answers
It’s special because it’s from your Grandma. It may also be redeemable in silver.
@pdworkin This is a “this one will be worth something one day” bill. I have been able to find out that it is not redeemable for silver.
Perhaps the mint date or serial number is what makes it special.
Can one look up the numbers?
You may find this of interest.
I don’t have a ton of information but heres some:
This is a United States Note.
The example note, not bill, was produced for the Boston Federal Reserve, indicated by the ‘1’ before the serial number.
It’s likely worth a little more than face value, not enough to seek a buyer. If you spend it it will likely be kept by the cashier. If it makes it’s way back to the Federal Reserve it will be destroyed. (keep it).
It’s not redeemable for silver. Silver Certificates have blue seals, but even those have not been redeemable for silver since 1968.
In fact, non redeemablity for precious metal is part of the reason for the creation of the US Note, the bearer was trusting the US government would protect the currency’s value by decree.
Metal backed notes read ‘Will pay to the bearer on demand…)
The red color was used for the government to easily identify US notes to check their circulation percentage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Note
Correction:
The example note’s home reserve is is indicated by an ‘A’ before the serial number, not a ‘1’. The reserve bank (Boston) would be indicated by a ‘1A’ with later series.
John F. Kennedy sought to create a national currency with zero interest (which took the federal reserve out of the picture) so he had the U.S. treasury (not the god damn federal reserve) create paper currency which was distinguished by the red seal/ink that you observe on your note. This was a gutsy move as it threatened the need for the federal reserve, the only other President to attempt such a feat was Lincoln ..well needless to say no other president has since tried too do away with the fed.
You will see that on the bill it says U.S. Treasury note instead of federal reserve note…
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