$1 note, 1935

The note

The Series 1935A $1 Silver Certificate with the R experimental overprint (P#416AR; Friedberg 1609) is Treasury paper printed for a paper-durability test, not a Federal Reserve Note. The ordinary blue-seal certificate of the same series, with no red letter, is catalogued as P#416a. This collection’s example is Fr. 1608, serial V94411136B. The red S, on special paper, is Fr. 1610: in this collection, serial S74796042C. The S prefix of the serial is the block letter, not that mark. This collection’s HAWAII $1 is Hawaii P#36, Fr. 2300, serial S40499058C: it shares the S–C block letters, but it falls in the Hawaii run S39996001C–S54996000C, with a brown seal and brown serials. The yellow seal is Fr. 2306, serial B52497547C, and Fr. 2306, serial C78095129C. This piece is Fr. 1609: a blue circular Treasury seal, blue serials, and a red R at lower right, beside the seal. The signatures are William Alexander Julian and Henry Morgenthau Jr. The black face on cream paper carries George Washington, the legend SILVER CERTIFICATE, a large 1 at left, and, at right, the blue seal over WASHINGTON, D.C. Blue serials S 71208111 C repeat at lower left and upper right (S–C block, with no star). The printed series, SERIES 1935 A, sits beside the Secretary. Plate position I is read at upper left; the face-plate marking I5840 sits in the lower-right margin. The green back shows a central ONE, the unfinished pyramid and the Eye of Providence at left — ANNUIT COEPTIS, NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM, and MDCCLXXVI — and the eagle with E PLURIBUS UNUM at right. The motto IN GOD WE TRUST is absent: it came onto the $1 in later series. Back plate 3358 sits below the lettering, toward the right. The regular run of Fr. 1609 is S70884001C–S72068000C, 1,184,000 notes. S71208111C sits 324,110 numbers above the first and is position 324,111 in that run. That count does not fix the chronological printing order. Between the R run and the S run, the same block carried ordinary blue-seal certificates, S72068001C–S73884000C; this serial does not fall there. The Fr. 1609 stars, *91176001A–*91188000A, are 12,000 notes and sit outside the 1,184,000. The photographs show paper toning and a small dark mark in the lower-left margin of the face. No numerical grade is assigned from the photographs: paper body, washing, and repairs cannot be read with certainty from the image. This collection piece, circulated and unslabbed, is documented by those photographs.

The red-R test

In 1944 the Bureau of Engraving and Printing set aside two equal runs of Series 1935A $1 silver certificates, Julian–Morgenthau signatures, to see how the paper held up. The red R named regular paper: Fr. 1609, S70884001C–S72068000C, 1,184,000 notes. The red S named the special paper: Fr. 1610, S73884001C–S75068000C, another 1,184,000. Between them, the same S–C block carried ordinary blue-seal certificates, S72068001C–S73884000C. On 20 June 1944 the two experimental runs entered circulation through the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The test reached no conclusion. Printed Series 1935A names the type, not the year of this piece.

The frame for that test — with Hawaii, the yellow seal, AMC, and Bernhard — is on the World War II emergency-banknotes case, under Notaphily. This page is the documented Fr. 1609 example: serial S71208111C, not a type illustration.

Scarcity and printage

Fr. 1609 (P#416AR) is the R-experimental $1, Julian–Morgenthau signatures, a regular issue. The non-star run is 1,184,000 notes, S70884001C–S72068000C. The S, Fr. 1610, repeats that figure in its own run. Together they are under 1% of Series 1935A $1 silver certificates. The R stars, *91176001A–*91188000A, are 12,000 notes and sit outside that count. This piece is not a star: the serial has an S prefix and a C suffix, and position 324,111 falls inside the regular run. The counter 71208111 is ordinary. This record does not republish prices.

Population

A PMG or PCGS census for serial S71208111C has not been independently verified. The note is shown unslabbed. No surviving population is quoted.

Related pieces

Other records from the same issuer or era in this case.

• $1 · S experimental · Series 1935 A
• $1 · Silver Certificate · Series 1935 A
• $1 · Silver Certificate · Series 1935 C ★
• $1 · Yellow seal C–C · Series 1935 A