Big B and small B on 1973 $1 notes

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Hi,

On my most recent ban note pick up, I got a 1973 $1 note with a big B and a small B in the prefix.
Is there any significance to this or is it normal to see two different fonts for this prefix?

Thanks,
Dean

My understanding (*willing to be corrected with evidence) is that the first letter is always the wide version and the second and third letters are the narrow version.

The same thing is seen on the Birds series $2 notes, though the narrow version also appeared in the first position.  Your catalogue makes a brief mention of the matter.  I suspect someone has written an article on it for the CPMS Newsletter/Journal at some point but I haven't looked to see.

The wider B looks reminiscent of the version used on U.S. banknotes.  With the exception of some scattered $2 prefixes in the BG* range and $10 BDD, the narrow B became standard as the first letter by early 1990 from the middle of BBP onward.  To the best of my knowledge, there was never a wide B used in the $100 BJ* series, but if there were they were extremely scarce.

Same likely applies for the earlier prefixes starting with F - the F was wide and also looked like the version used on U.S. banknotes, until the middle of the 1990s when the narrow F became standard as a first letter.