What Are Star Notes?

Imagine that you have a few bucks floating around your wallet or purse. You take them out to count them, but see something that looks odd on one of them. 

The serial number on one of the bills has a star in it. There’s the numbers in green – then a star, printed with that same green. It almost looks out of place.

Well, what you’ve found is known as a Star Note. The most important thing to know is that Star Notes are, in fact, legal tender and not some snarky counterfeit that worked its way into the money supply.

As is the case with many currency-based novelties, some Star Notes can be worth quite a bit more than their denominations would suggest. This page is your guide to these quirky bits of currency and why you might decide to keep yours in a safe place, rather than your wallet.

What Is a Star Note?

A Star Note is a replacement bill that is produced by the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP). Simply put, they are created in order to take the place of regular bills that are defective or damaged in the course of the production process itself.

These bills function no differently than any other standard dollars of the same denomination. However, some Star Notes are more valuable than their “face value” because they have unique characteristics or embody some sort of rare feature.

Why Star Notes Exist

Now, you might wonder why it even matters to replace the bills. After all, there are so many bills already in circulation that each one added reduces the purchasing power of the lot. 

However, every single bill in circulation is, in theory, trackable through the BEP database because each one is printed with a serial number. Thus, a bill removed from the group could mess up the numbering and create an imbalance in the number of bills produced per batch of production.

The problem is that no two currency bills can have the same serial number. So, the BEP prints a Star Note with a star at the end of the serial number to indicate that it is replacing the old bill.

It’s important to recognize that a Star Note is not a mistake. Those stars in the serials are evidence of a quality control process at work. In fact, Star Notes are corrective tools themselves.

How a Star Note May Be Valuable

Star Notes are generally worth their printed denomination amount. However, you may be able to find some that command a premium over their stated value if you know where to look. Here are the attributes that combine to form a Star Note’s (or any bill, really) additional value.

• Denominational rarity – The $100 bill is the most common denomination that the BEP produces. In 2024, almost 35% of all bills were hundos. Another 27% were $1s. However, only 3% of bills were $2 bills. Thus, a $2 Star Note is much more likely to be valuable than a $100 Star Note.

• Relative rarity – Each production run is a discrete event, and not all of them are the same size. In fact, some production runs are rather paltry in comparison to the others in the same year or overall. So, Star Notes from runs with fewer products are, by definition, rarer.

• • Production run rarity – There is no prescribed number of Star Notes that must be produced, either in absolute terms or in terms of a percentage, during each production run. A run with no errors will have no Star Notes. So, Star Notes may be quite scarce from run to run, and, obviously, it’s better if you get one of the precious few issued.

• Condition – Coin collectors and bill collectors share a particular concern for the condition of the members of their collections. For bill collectors, the goal is to find bills – Star Notes or otherwise – that have never circulated and have no indicators of usage whatsoever. A bill that appears to have just left the printer and has no creases, folds, or wrinkles is more desirable and valuable than the alternative.

• Historical significance – A bill present at the time of a historically significant event or issued in commemoration of it bears a sort of natural rarity. So, any Star Notes in a group of bills that correspond or relate to a particular event or time period are going to hold the attention of investors and collectors.

• Serial number synergy – The last attribute that attracts investor attention is if the serial number on the bill is particularly ordered or memorable. For instance, a bill might be worth a bit more if it is bill #111111111, or bill #000000007, or bill #123321123. You get the idea – if the number looks less than random (even though it is), collectors may be interested.

• Misaligned or misprinted – A bit of rarity inception, where the already-rare Star Notes – printed to replace defective bills – are themselves defective or contain errors. Any misalignments or misprints on Star Notes are rarer still, so you can imagine how desirable that would be.

How to Identify a Star Note

As you’re looking through your bills to try and find a Star Note, you need to know what elements to check.

The first is the most obvious – the serial number. The star symbol, if it is to appear, is always going to be at the end of the number.

Serial numbers are always printed twice. Most of the serial number combinations will appear in the upper left corner and lower right corner of the front of the bill. 

However, some bills – notably, the $1 bill – will have their serial numbers in the opposite orientation. In these cases, the serial numbers will be in the lower left corner and the upper right corner of the bill.

If you do find that you have a Star Note, the next thing to check is the series year associated with the bill. In most cases, the series year appears to the right of the image at the bottom of the bill. However, in a few situations, like on the $10 bill, they may appear on the left-hand side – but also on the bottom of the bill.

The Federal Reserve Stamps

You’ll also need to figure out from which Federal Reserve bank the bill originated. 

Though there are only two locations that make the physical bills for the money supply (in Washington DC and Fort Worth), there are 12 Federal Reserve banks that distribute the bills to major cities around the nation. The Federal Reserve assigns each location a letter and number code that appears on every bill that the location distributes, as follows:

• A1 – Boston
• B2 – New York City
• C3 – Philadelphia
• D4 – Cleveland
• E5 – Richmond
• F6 – Atlanta
• G7 – Chicago
• H8 – St. Louis
• I9 – Minneapolis
• J10 – Kansas City
• K11 – Dallas
• L12 – San Francisco

On older bills, the letter code is contained neatly within an ovate black seal on the left side of the front of the bill, and its corresponding number is printed on the left edge of the bill. On newer ones, a black Federal Reserve seal still appears, but the codes now appear in their entirety (both letter and number) on the upper left portion of the front of the bill.

Examples of Famous Star Notes

As is the case with any collectors’ item, there are some Star Notes that are better known than others. They may be particularly rare, or they may have some other quality that makes them desirable to collectors. Here are some of the more prominent Star Notes:

• 2013 B Duplicate $1 Star Notes
• 2013 $20 Note
• 1950 $100 Note
• 1934 $5 Silver Certificate
• 1928 $1000 Note

The best thing to do if you would like to check on the authenticity and, potentially, the rarity of your Star Note is to look at the appropriate databases. The BEP’s own website itemizes the star notes it creates each month on its monthly reports, which stretch back to 2003. If your note is slightly older, you can try the Star Note Lookup on My Currency Collection.

However, notes that are from the 1970s or before are likely to require expert opinion to confirm. You can reach out to the BEP, or try a coinshop/dealer to help you get some answers.

Conclusion

Star Notes can be a fun thing to collect because you may already have them OR you may receive them on accident. In effect, you can discover treasure simply if you look for a * at the end of a bill’s serial numbers.

Best of all, it takes almost no time to start collecting. Pull out your wallet, your purse, or your money jar and get started. You may already be literally sitting on extra value!