Prefix Collecting in Recent times

News: Welcome to the Canadian Paper Money Forum.

I am in touch with several collectors who collect one note of every prefix.

Typically when new notes come out such as (CDA to CDF) and (FTW to FFA) it is relatively easier to get bundles and access to new prefixes.


However it has become my experience that for denominations in circulation it is difficult to get even some of the more common full range prefixes in UNC e.g. HCG, FTU, FYS, GHZ, GJU etc.


To get them in anything greater than UNC is even more difficult because newer bundles are not necessarily all in pristine conditions.


My guess is that part of the reason could be that newer prefixes that are being introduced are not introduced in large enough quantities to replace existing notes and part of the reason is that it is becoming more difficult to source bricks and bundles of new notes.


Regardless of that even to get change over prefixes in UNC appears to be difficult.


I am not sure if collecting by prefixes is anything big. I am wondering how many members of the forum collect every prefix? And for those who collect I am wondering if you are able to share the ease with which you can get them including the impact on pricing?

However it has become my experience that for denominations in circulation it is difficult to get even some of the more common full range prefixes in UNC e.g. HCG, FTU, FYS, GHZ, GJU etc.

-I believe it is typically more uncommon to find the prefixes one wants to obtain at the end of a series (rather than at the beginning of a new series) in UNC.  This was my experience around 2003-4 when I was trying to get the tougher prefixes of the original 2001 Journey TENS (BEK, BEL, BEP & BET). I only got BEN & BEM so I had to obtain them online.

In the months that I had access to new bundles of the "150" commemorative Tens I never got one bundle of CDF -so I my only choice was to purchase them from a fellow CPMF member.  By that time we all knew that this would be the tougher (short) prefix.

In the past 5 years, I have not tried to get any other denomination other than TENS, so I cannot comment on the $50 (though I got a few bundles of new $5 & 20 before that).  I have always found it a "crap shoot" in terms of what prefix one gets.  Even though I have tried to maintain a positive relationship with a few select branches that have been more helpful (than the others) I am finding it more and more difficult to get new (multiple) bundles.

I am wondering how many members of the forum collect every prefix?

- I do not collect every prefix (& don't think I will get into that).  I just try to collect short or the tough change-over prefixes & special serial numbers.   As far as pricing is concerned: again a lot to do with the "luck of the draw" and who to deal with.  Some want BV (or more) while others are more reasonable.