My game plan got thrown out the window when I saw a couple error notes I liked.
The important thing is you got what you wanted/liked. If you collect by what other people suggest then it is likely you will remain unsatisfied with your collection.
Perhaps it is time for you to weigh your reasons why you collect what you collect. By the sounds of it you did well by getting the error note since it was a note you were interested in the first place. In my books, if it were a lower denomination, then that would be a bonus.
When you first posted your query (which would you prefer error over $50?) I would have been inclined to support the error simply because I no longer collect notes above $20 in denomination. It's been hard to do this (define my limits) but I had to start focussing my collection on lower denominations for what I believe to be some sound rationalizations.
Although I loved the designs of the higher denominations when I first started collecting, eventually my infatuation with them waned. I lost interest in $50/100 notes when I saw so many posts by "newbies" (who were not interested in collecting paper money) showing off their deceased relatives' pristine higher denominations they inherited from their grandfather/mother's safety deposit boxes. I realized if I were going to stash some cash away- I'd likely put in a higher denomination and found out how hard it was to sell them too (much different then what the book suggests). I saw a similar trend on online auctions too.
On the other hand, if I saw posts of scanned lower denominations they were typically from deceased relatives who were collectors, and if you think about it, a lower denomination is much more likely to experience wear and tear from over-circulation (than higher denominations). Maybe this isn't so much the case now- but it surely must have been the case when $100 was really a lot of cash!
There are some exceptions to this generalization, but the rule worked for me, and also I thought it seemed like an excess amount of money to put away for some higher denominations then for the lower ones. Consider this- if they only print 100,000 of a particular high denomination & you happen to have one in high grade- what's the big deal if there were several that were hoarded or tucked away (usually in high grades)? The note you have is still probably X% of the remaining notes. On the other hand- if they printed 10,000,000 notes and you happen to have one that is an error- which you know happens to occur on very rare occasions, and you have one of them, I think that is much more desirable. It would be like .000X% of the issued notes. If they print a low quantity of replacement notes (for the rare errors just described) than that too would be interesting for me since they represent a tiny fraction of the notes intended for circulation.
If I had a choice between a more recent specimen note and a specimen note that was printed back in 1954, I would go for the older note, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that regard.
Again- though- you should pick up what interests you (the design?) or even in terms of what you can afford. Start making some parameters of what you like/intend to collect and I suspect you will enjoy collecting a lot more.
