A bank teller's explanation of asterisk notes to a child:
I remember when I was 8 or 9 years old and asking a family friend - who was a bank teller in her mid-20's - why there was a little star in front of the serial number on a 1973 $1 bill I got. She told me this was because the Queen's bra strap was missing in her picture (
??: it didn't occur to me at the time to ask her why the Queen looked
exactly the same on my asterisk note as she did on a regular note
).
I shudder to think what her explanation would have been if I had instead asked her about a 1972 $5 asterisk note - what particular article of Wilfred Laurier's clothing would she have said was missing? [could have given a whole new meaning to the "Where's Willy" money tracking site
].
