Am I missing something here?
Charlton does list prices for English $500 notes (
2009 edition, p. 226)
G = $17K
VG = $35K
F = $45K
VF = $60K
EF = $80K
French: "Extremely rare. Market value not established"
I don't get it. Something rare is something you find "not very frequent", like the one in a million odds of stumbling upon one in your granddad's old attic.
But these notes are not considered "rare". We know where they are and we know how to obtain one. It's like saying "The CN Tower is
RARE because there is only 1" or "The statue of liberty is
extremely rare" because there is only one. But surely if you had enough MONEY, either one can be bought.
If I had won the 6/49, I could easily buy out one of those notes from our national museum. But for what purpose? It is public for the public to see.
On a more practical scale, a 1935 $25 note in EF is "extremely rare", not really... it is OBSOLETE from circulation and if I wanted to obtain one, I would basically have to make an offer that is more than book value and buy it from someone who is not too emotionally attached to his collection. I wouldn't be able to resell it for anything near that price, but it is obtainable.
Now a perfect woman... now THAT's "RARE".