For the record here is what I know of this range:These notes were found in regular BABN packaging in bricks of BTA, BTC and BTF by three different brick seachers over a period of a few months. BEY 5.840 - 5.842 replacement notes were inserted one at a time ( SNR ). The number of these notes found are as follows:
BTA -
2 notes foundBTC -
1 note foundBTF 7.486000 - 2 notes found - All three of these notes have band marks as if they had been CBN style strapped at some time. A very very slight impression of a cutting at bottom right. There is a very slight " push " in the paper, from back to front, which has been noticed on many of the SNRs. The position numbers ( 96/84 ) indicate that they were cut from a "mini-ream".
BTF 7.485000 -
1 note found My find last week was in both BTF 7.486, 7.485 and was mixed with a range of BTF 8.359 replacements which were also inserted one at a time with position numbers ( 74/56 ) that indicates they were cut from a "mini ream". Many of the replacements also showed a small paper " push ", back to front, and all notes showed varying degrees of rippling from very minor single at Mc Donald's lapel to two ripples that ran from top to bottom.
Oddly enough consecutive brick BTF 7.487 showed up at another branch of the T-D about 40 miles away. This particular brick also contained BTF 8.359 replacements and, although we don't know yet, may have also contained additional BEY 5.48 replacements. If this brick contained BEY the the number of those notes would probably be either 5.841017 or 5.841022 or very close. We will have to wait to get the report from the brick searcher. Info from this brick is now posted on the site.
BTF 7.487 -
1 note foundAppreciate the info you so quickly provided, Arthur. Seems like numbers 1019, 1022 and 1023 somehow were not in the hopper. Interesting stuff.
How do you get a mix of single note replacements ( BEY and BTF ) in the same brick?My personal thoughts are that regular SNRs are inserted by machine. A paper "push", from back to front, found on many of these notes indicates that to me. I believe that after sheets are cut the notes are run through machines that electronically scan for errors, insert replacements, count into bundles of 100, then paper banded, paper banded into bricks of 10 bundles before they move on to be shrink wrapped.
When the scanner rejects a note a replacement is inserted from a hopper containing a stack. The hopper must always have a supply so before it runs out more notes are added. eg: 500 replacement notes, from bricks set aside for the purpose ( a possible reason for strap marks found on SNRs with numbers that are close to the 000 and 999 notes ) are placed into the hopper with prefix and serial numbers facing up. These notes are pushed by mechanical arm ( this is where the paper "push" occurs ), always top note first, as needed every time the scanner rejects a note from the line. Before that original 500 is completely exhausted another 500 is added leaving a small number of the original replacements at the bottom. Occationally the hopper may use up all of the second 500 notes and continue to dispense a few from the original 500 before it is loaded by one of the workers. This would happen over and over so the original 500 can be interspersed with other replacements and found even over multiple prefixes.
Another possibility for mixed replacements in a single brick is that there are two scanners used each with its own hopper. One scanner may may look at the front of the note and insert BTF. The other scanner may look at the back of the note and insert BEY. If so I would suggest, because of the inkspots on BTF replacements, which can be seen in the error section, that the front of the note is scanned first. Replacements inserted for front side errors would only be scanned on the back. Seems to me if this senerio is correct that the BTF replacements in my bricks were used to replace front side errors and BEYs were used to replace errors on the back.
I hope that, while reading this piece, you will notice that I used the word "replacement" quite a bit. In the hobby we have gotten used to the word "insert" probably because it has fewer letter to type. In fact the word "insert" is an "action" but the
ITEM being "inserted" is actually a replacement. I wish we could all get used to using the proper name for these thingys.
If anyone has more info to add about BEY 5.840-5.842 replacemts please post. If you have any questions please ask.
Gary