Treasure In The Treasure State? Dollar Bills Worth $150K

Did You Know Every Bill In America Has A Unique Number?

It's true, every single bill ever used as currency in America has it's own unique serial number.  Why? Mostly to stop counterfeiting. Even when a replacement bill is printed, it uses a star after the number because every number can only be used one time.

Of course, every once in awhile, mistakes happen during printing.  The mistake we're talking about today is a doozy.

Montanans, Start Checking Your Dollar Bills

Wealthy Nickel has an article on how there are dollar bills circulating that actually have duplicate numbers with no star. You get the pair of these, and it could be worth up to $150,000.

How Did This Even Happen?

In a nutshell:

From Wealthy Nickel:

"In November 2014, the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing sent a request to its Washington DC facility to print a batch of dollar bills. In July 2016, the exact same request was sent to the Fort Worth facility." That request included the EXACT. SAME. NUMBERS.

There are about 6.4 million PAIRS of these dollar bills that have the exact same serial number.  What's really shocking, is that to date, only 37 pairs of these bills have found their match.

It seems like it would be easy to find considering the numbers of the pairs are in the millions.  Thing is, as of 2022, there were over 54.1 BILLION dollar bills in circulation.

Which Serial Numbers Should You Watch For?

From Wealthy Nickel:

• Near the picture of George Washington, you should see a series date that says, "Series 2013"
• Above the small serial number should have a "B" Federal Reserve Seal
• The Serial number ends with a star, asterisk, and be between either: B00000001* – B00250000* or B03200001*-B09600000*

What To Do If You Find One Of These Bills:

Log on to Project 2013B. Project 2013B was developed after the collectors running the Zegers/Winograd Project stepped down.

Enter the details of your bill, and when the pair is found, Project 2013B will get you in contact with the person who has your bill twin, and you two can figure out how to proceed.