Prefixes to look for in circulation

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Hi everyone,

I was hoping to gather input regarding prefixes collectors should keep an eye out for in circulation. 

I have the opportunity of a lifetime...I have the chance to search through 10 bags of culled banknotes at my local branch before they send them away.

 The manager showed me a couple of bundles of old notes from the stash; one bunch was all Birds and Multicoloured notes.  I bought the lot and most were spenders except a nice AU 1972 $5 note and a few UNC 1973 $1.

Aside from the obvious asterisk and "X" replacement notes, it would be useful to consolidate prefixes to look for in one place on the forum.

Short run prefixes, anomalies etc...would be a good start.  It would be very helpful to break it down by denomination as well.

Admins, is there a way to make this happen?

Any assistance would be appreciated!

Dean

The high/low lists would be a good place to look for changeovers: https://cdnpapermoney.com/sndb/hl

You can also find replacement ranges here: https://cdnpapermoney.com/sndb/rranges

I would suggest you get a Canadian paper money book and use that as your reference material

Thank you for all that.  I am a seasoned collector with all of the bells and whistles, having been involved in the hobby for over 30 years.  I just thought it would be easier to have a list of prefixes so people wouldn't have to go through the catalogue if they happen to come across old banknotes.

I will only have a few minutes to look through hundreds of notes; I was looking for a faster way to check for prefixes rather than looking each one up individually in the book...  LOL!

I would make up a quick cheat-sheet of important notes.  If you do not find any that are considered rare, and if the rest are circulated, not worth keeping any (in my opinion).  I know the feeling of searching through notes quickly at a bank.  One (of the many banks) I visit allows me to look through ALL there new and circulated notes.  I have $5 notes down to 2 minutes per 100.  Usual finds for polymer replacement, radar or low serial number are:
-$5 1/100, $10 1/150, $20 1/200, $50 1/100 and $100 1/100

Usual finds for polymer replacement, radar or low serial number are:
-$5 1/100, $10 1/150, $20 1/200, $50 1/100 and $100 1/100

Man you are really on to something here. Typically the odds of you finding special notes are higher than the odds of them being printed that way.


If you have been doing this for a while and if you have had access to many thousands of notes and you have been hitting the special ones at the rate you indicate then I think the values of the low serial numbers, and radars just went down.

 

Man you are really on to something here. Typically the odds of you finding special notes are higher than the odds of them being printed that way.


If you have been doing this for a while and if you have had access to many thousands of notes and you have been hitting the special ones at the rate you indicate then I think the values of the low serial numbers, and radars just went down.

 

Not really. Consider $5 x 20 prefix x 10 million per prefix divided 9000 replacement range x 175 ish ranges is 133 /1. Factor in low serial and radars and there's your 1/100. 

From the current series...
$5 ?? None really
$10 FTH Macklem-Carney**, FTN Wilkins-Poloz, 2017 CDF
$20 BSW**
$50 AMK**,  AMG
$100 EKZ**, EKY

**These are the very hard to find must have prefix that most collectors want.

For the new 2018 $10 series there does not appear to be any scarce prefixes to my knowledge. I have had my hands easily on all prefixes so far from FTW to FTZ. I have not seen any FFA-FFZ prefixes yet.

thank you for the information

If someone knows the Admins, nobody can see any of this information above as all the links Do Not Work.  All we can do is add new notes!!!!

$5 ?? None really
$10 FTH Macklem-Carney**, FTN Wilkins-Poloz, 2017 CDF
$20 BSW**
$50 AMK**,  AMG
$100 EKZ**, EKY

Yes- the list above are the real tough ones to find in any condition but I would give these 3***.  If you see one- hang onto it (graffiti and all).  I have looked for years for these- so they're exceptionally hard to find. There have been 253 EKY so I would put that more in the 2** category (like AMG-177) considering everyone has been looking for them.

Now I'd give ** for M/C GHD & AMG $50.  I found a few but haven't seen any since (I suspect the low # GHD to be especially rare_. 51 M/C GHD $50 have been reported in SNDB (which is pretty low considering we've all been entering them for years now).  I have found several circulated AMG $50 but I would be keep them in higher grade.  The AMG inserts have rightfully shot up in value (likely because its so hard to get AMG in UNC).
and ** for FVP $20 W/P around 1,000,000 have been reported printed but I suspect that # (likely printed in 90,000 blocks). Keep especially if you find in higher grades.  These might also be a * for some members here who've found them in runs of UNC. I had a member anxious to sell me some in UNC..so maybe not as hard as we think.

Now for the * (worth keeping but don't get too excited)
$5 HBG M/C are keeper if you can find them in higher grades (I know these were dumped in certain parts of Canada but I never found any in UNC- had to source them through collector friends)
CDF $10 seem pretty quite hard to find out here in Ontario but yes they seem plentiful in Quebec.  (keep higher grade)
FTN W/P $10 have been tricky to find but I have found a few UNC.  FTU $10 have been much harder to get in higher grades (although there is a good chance FTU may still be released/some members have found bundles).  If I found any in UNC I would be keeping them until it is determined how tough they will be).   
FWW W/P $20 (non-commemorative) seem less common than the commemorative $20 (FVY seems to also be uncommon though it be could early yet and there may large dumpings yet)

Think that's it....

every now and then get 1 in change I keep them Not unc sad

Not really. Consider $5 x 20 prefix x 10 million per prefix divided 9000 replacement range x 175 ish ranges is 133 /1. Factor in low serial and radars and there's your 1/100.

Ok - If you include the replacements. So bulk of the finds are replacements. Otherwise the find for radars is 1 in 1000 and for low numbers even less.

I would not consider the HBG M/C any more valuable than five dollars (dabbling in signature collection aside) As of this writing I have seen 1699 HBG and of those 877 are M/C - they seem no rarer than any other arbitrary serial number range of 3.42 million. Of course if someone wanted to pay me a premium for some circulated ones I would happily oblige 

Got my BSW, still on the hunt for my FTH <8.364, AMK, EKZ but my hopes are not high. Already have AMG, EKY and my data says that I have had three GHD <4.9 in the past but they slipped away before I realized they were something to watch out for!

I have found at least ten HBG under 3.6M and I returned them all back to the bank.  Not worth a premium in my opinion.