Collecting
Fancy serial number
Numeración especial
A fancy serial is a sought pattern in the digits: low (1–100), radar or palindrome, binary (only zeros and ones), solid, ladder, repeater, or million. One serial may meet more than one class: 10000001 is binary and a palindrome. That does not duplicate the piece. The pattern is read on the printed width, without stripping zeros. A first-sheet 00000001 is a first-of-issue low; an eight-digit 10000001 is a collector fancy, not the first of the series.
This collection publishes the 2,000-peso note of 20 August 2008, Pick 457, serial 10000001, printed twice on the back, in a sleeve, unslabbed, and the 2,000-peso note of 19 August 2009, Pick 457k, radar serial 70200207, also on the back, unslabbed. 70200207 is not binary. Neither of those two is the Bolívar 2,000 pesos oro or the large 1996–2005 2,000. BanRep’s production of 2,000-peso notes in 2008 (280.4 million) and in 2009 (235.4 million) is the denomination total for each year, not the printage of 10000001 or of 70200207. The Gaitán 1,000 pesos of 18 August 2009, Pick 456l, radar serial 78400487, is printed twice on the face, unslabbed, and is not binary either. BanRep’s 2009 production of 1,000-peso notes (209.2 million) is that denomination’s total for the year, not the printage of 78400487. The /en/tools/fancy-serial-checker/ tool classifies patterns on serials the user types; it does not invent holdings.
A replacement star or asterisk is not, by itself, a fancy. A specimen of zeros is not either. The glossary keeps separate terms for radar, binary, solid, ladder, and repeater, anchored on the index when they have no article of their own. Here the set is explained and 10000001, 70200207, and 78400487 are pointed to, radars already published. 42222224 on the 2010 one-thousand is another radar of the same family.
Radar, binary, solid, ladder, and repeater stay on the index as anchors, because their short definitions suffice when the long article covers the set. The tool does not create a holding by classifying a number, and on eight digits it also marks the list on that page, with no price. 10000001, 70200207, and 78400487, already published, illustrate here a binary radar and radars that are not binary.
Examples in the collection
See also: Serial numbering , Radar / palindrome note , Binary serial , Solid serial , Ladder note , Low serial number , Repeater serial