Author Description

It was in 1985 that the noted numismatic researcher Douglas D. Murray revolutionized the then little-understood subject of star notes and Large Size United States currency with the publication of the Handbook of United States Large Size Star Notes 1910-1929. Murray took previously unknown information and produced two editions of a book that has been a necessity for all serious collectors and dealers for over twenty years. Star notes are relatively well known on current-size United States currency and their explanation is fairly straightforward: When a note is found to be imperfect in the course of manufacture, it is replaced with a star note, that is a note bearing a star either before or after the serial number. A star note is also used for the 100,000,000th note in a series since the numbering machines cannot print over eight digits. In all other respects, a star note is indistinguishable from regular notes, and of course, worth the same face value. Star replacement notes did not appear on large size currency until 1910 (before then there were instances where stars were part of the design). Prior to 1910, misprints were replaced by exact duplicates of the same serial number made by hand. When Murray began his research, no then-published catalog contained any information on the subject. He discovered 2,100 notes to list in the first edition and by the time of the second edition in 1996 he had identified a total of 3,620. Now, twenty-two years later, an additional 2,677 star serial numbers have been added to the census of known notes. Additionally, all 6,296 serial numbers now identified include the date that they were made known to the author. Astoundingly, government records indicate that about 95 million large size star notes were printed in total. Thus, only a minuscule.007% of the notes produced are known today. All twenty-nine different types of star notes are illustrated and listed, first by type (United States Notes, Silver Certificates, Federal Reserve Ban