$5 Journey Mismatched Serial Number (5-digits)

News: Welcome to the Canadian Paper Money Forum.

A very scarce authentic $5 Journey error note with 5-digits in the serial number mismatched.  In addition an ink rectangle has been printed at the end of the left serial number.  This note was found in circulation.

I had several experts verify the authenticity of this note under high power magnification before having Steven Bell at BCS verify and grade the note as an original mismatched serial number error note.

I have seen this unusual rectangle before on several other authentic mismatched serial number notes sold at public auction (see attached images) but can find no explanation for its appearance.  Strangely all these notes have 5-digits mismatched in the serial number with the 4th and 7th digit being correctly matched on each note.

So we would have to presume that the numbering machines used had space for an 8th digit (not counting the prefix)?  Perhaps since this last digit was not needed it was populated with one blank space in the usual position and those rectangular blocks in other unused positions.

I would tend to think that the 4th and 7th digit being matched is just a coincidence.  Three notes are not enough to derive any conclusions.  It seems to me that the numbering wheel became loose and the digits printed on the left side were completely random.

I'm just surprised that large runs were not found of these notes since I would think many consecutive notes would have had the same error until it was corrected.  I don't see how the numbers would place themselves back in their correct positions by themselves.

I was able to find the same rectangle printed on a US Federal Reserve mismatched serial number note but this time where you would expect an actual numeric digit.

Here is a 2017 article in Coin World about the discovery of this new BEP error note:

https://www.coinworld.com/news/precious-metals/new-bep-press-creates-new-kind-of-note-error.html

 Interesting finds!  On another random error find,  I have found a polymer note with the prefix letter partially missing (the black ink) but you could see that the stamp hit the polymer note and left a mark that could be seen at a weird angle.

Did some more searching through old CPMF posts and found this one from 2008 with similar 5-digit mismatched serial number notes including the black rectangle after the left serial number:

I just received a 2007 BTG 10.00 mismatched serial numbered Error note and noticed that the 5 mismatched numbers are in the same position that are on my 2000 FDT 10.00 Error, including the same extra black box ! At first glance I thought that someone was trying to copy the batch of 2000 10.00 Error notes, however this is not the case as I examined the 2007 note under high magnification and found no traces of tampering. I know the odds of this exact Error are astronomical but could any Forum members be able to narrow down the odds ?http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a246/nova7415/DSCF0278_edited.jpg

Both of these notes have the 4th and 7th digit matching as well which increases the sampling size now to five similar notes.  The right serial number of the FDT 8798800 note is very close to the previous example I posted FDT 8798746.

I'm just surprised that large runs were not found of these notes since I would think many consecutive notes would have had the same error until it was corrected.  I don't see how the numbers would place themselves back in their correct positions by themselves.

It appears that several 5-digit mismatched serial numbered notes from the FDT run were found.  Here is another from a 2007 public auction that sold for $2,488.50 in EF+ (4th and 7th digits matching again):

https://www.icollector.com/5-Mismatched-number-s-UNBELIEVABLE-UNBELIEVABLE-2001-10-FDT0558767-FDT8798947-EF_i6991157

It may be worth creating a registry for these.  So far I have discovered the following:

FDT 1438656▮ / FDT 8798746   UNC 64
FDT 7818590▮ / FDT 8798800   VF (?)
FDT 0558767▮ / FDT 8798947   EF+

I suspect that they were only discovered once in circulation based on gaps between serial numbers and the condition of the notes.  Would have been a nice find for the lucky brick searcher ($$$).

Thank you for this great find of a 5.00 note. I will have to start checking more of them in the hopes of finding one.

Very Interesting. Perhaps someone at Bank of Canada Museum can shed some light.

Did some more searching through old CPMF posts and found this one from 2008 with similar 5-digit mismatched serial number notes including the black rectangle after the left serial number:

Both of these notes have the 4th and 7th digit matching as well which increases the sampling size now to five similar notes.  The right serial number of the FDT 8798800 note is very close to the previous example I posted FDT 8798746.

I have  not done much analysis of the skip numbers of those series of banknotes but there might be something happening here at the transitions of skip numbers.


I have long believed that the numbering system automatically advances itself and is not reset at every skip interval.

It appears that several 5-digit mismatched serial numbered notes from the FDT run were found.  Here is another from a 2007 public auction that sold for $2,488.50 in EF+ (4th and 7th digits matching again):

https://www.icollector.com/5-Mismatched-number-s-UNBELIEVABLE-UNBELIEVABLE-2001-10-FDT0558767-FDT8798947-EF_i6991157

It may be worth creating a registry for these.  So far I have discovered the following:

FDT 1438656▮ / FDT 8798746   UNC 64
FDT 7818590▮ / FDT 8798800   VF (?)
FDT 0558767▮ / FDT 8798947   EF+

I suspect that they were only discovered once in circulation based on gaps between serial numbers and the condition of the notes.  Would have been a nice find for the lucky brick searcher ($$$).

Or it could just be a huge malfunction of the left numbering machine. At least from these finds.


Great investigation. Thank you for sharing.

I found an image of another BTG example on a banknote error site (same 4th and 7th digits matched with solid rectangle at end of the left serial number).

Here is a quick tally of the three 2007 $10 5-digit mismatched serial number notes with BTG prefix that I have found through online research:

BTG 6468334▮ / BTG 5288984   VF (?)
BTG 7508445▮ / BTG 5288995   VF (?)
BTG 9728330▮ / BTG 5368850   VF (?)

Strange fact (coincidence) is that the 4th matched digit on all six $10 (FDT/BTG) mismatched serial number notes is the number "8". 

"The answer is out there, Neo. It's looking for you, and it will find you if you want it to." (Matrix)

Very interesting stuff.

That's quite a gap between BTG 528 and BTC 536.  Does 120k notes correspond to the ream size?  I would venture a guess that those notes were in the same position on the sheet in two consecutive reams.  If the sheets were skip-numbered by 2500 (just a guess) then the last four digits would have to be between 7500 and 9999 so the fact that you are seeing 8s in the 4th digit is not a complete coincidence.  For that matter is it possible that all these errors (BTG, FDT, APA) were caused by the same failure-prone numbering machine given the similarities?

I'm willing to accept the 4th and 7th digits as more than just a coincidence at this point.  Interesting peculiarity of the numbering machine that all the wheels would fail except for those two.

Here is another example to add to the serial number database.  What I find interesting is that the first number is the same as another FDT 1438656 note already listed above and the second serial is off by 70