the serial numbers beginning with ENL and ENC - are these significant? I've been studying my Charlton and am still a little confused as to how the numbers work
The Charlton has a lot of useful info re: the prefixes serial numbers of each series. At first glance it can be quite overwhelming. It is quite understandable to be confused since there is a significant amount of info which takes some time to assimilate and process. I'll try to untangle some of this info below:
If you have a 23rd 2011 Edition* then you will find that the ENC prefix note you have is listed on
page 293 under a:
"
Checklist for Prefix(Sic) Letters For 1986-1991 Issues"
and in this table below you will find that:
BC-56a (regular note /first prefix combination) $5 1986 Crow-Bouey has EN (A-Z) full run of notes printed (000000-9999999)
That means nearly 10,000,000 notes of ENA, ENB, etc were printed /released
The only significant piece of info about these notes is that they were printed with a regular (yellow back position)
Page 300 has the book value ranges of this ENC & ENL note and also beside BC-56a the Quantity Printed (220,000,000) which may give you a better understanding that only notes in UNC (Uncirculated with minor flaws) approximates at $35 whereas a GUNC (GEM Uncirculated or flawless note) could fetch $50 for the right buyer.
Info on GRADING can be found in the page xv of the INTRODUCTION to your Charlton.You will then also note that the next Prefix series is EO (A-G) - the same as above
and then in the next row- EOH which has been printed up to 2,599,999 (Yellow BPN) These notes will be desirable to many collectors since there change up due to the printing of a new (Blue back position #) - the next EOH listed below (from 2,600,000 - 9,999,999)
See page 300 estimated book value of the EOH Yellow BPN noteAnd then (in next row)
BC-56aA ENX 0 up to 2247351* (* asterisk usually signifies that the number printed is an estimate or that the number released may vary from the number printed)
These are significant as the last "A" from the BC-56aA signifies that the note served as a
replacement to defective notes (thus less printed)
See page 300 estimated book value of the ENX Yellow BPN note BC-56aA will have significantly higher Book Value (BV) $360- $400 If you stay on
page 300 and look the fifth note listed (BC-56a-i or Crow-Bouey; EOH Blue BPN) you can see that while there are 7,400,000 estimated to be printed/released that it
has an even higher BV then the ENX replacement note. It is important to remember that the numbers don't always tell the whole story-that the colour of the BPN would have been discovered long after the note was released so many of the BC-56a-i notes were likely overlooked and not collected by collectors.
There is a lot more info about the various Back Position Numbers on page 292.
*If you have the latest 24th edition you will find most of the info to be similar with perhaps some new info (notes shown in colour) and typically varying book values.Hope this helps explain how the book is organized for the $5.00 BIRDS.