Where's George? (2007 edition)
February 1, 2010 5:19 PM Subscribe
How often are dollar bills printed? As in, during which years?
One of my friends is on a quest for a 2007 dollar bill (that is, $1, not any denomination), for reasons that are irrelevant to this question, and after pointing out to me that they don't seem to exist, I've become a little fixated on it myself. Now I'm looking at the date on every dollar bill that comes into my possession and I've noticed that virtually all of them were printed in 2003, 2006, or 2008. (I had a 1985 one in strikingly good condition a few weeks ago, but that's been the only anomaly.) What gives? I find it hard to believe there were no dollar bills printed in 2004 and 2005. Do some years just have a much higher print run than others? Or did they really not print any dollar bills in the years I haven't come across? Googling doesn't turn up much, though the table on wheresgeorge.com of bills by series seems to support the idea that they're not printed every year. (And if they're not printed every year, can any currency buffs explain to me why some years get multiple runs while other times there'll be a 2-3 year gap between series?)
One of my friends is on a quest for a 2007 dollar bill (that is, $1, not any denomination), for reasons that are irrelevant to this question, and after pointing out to me that they don't seem to exist, I've become a little fixated on it myself. Now I'm looking at the date on every dollar bill that comes into my possession and I've noticed that virtually all of them were printed in 2003, 2006, or 2008. (I had a 1985 one in strikingly good condition a few weeks ago, but that's been the only anomaly.) What gives? I find it hard to believe there were no dollar bills printed in 2004 and 2005. Do some years just have a much higher print run than others? Or did they really not print any dollar bills in the years I haven't come across? Googling doesn't turn up much, though the table on wheresgeorge.com of bills by series seems to support the idea that they're not printed every year. (And if they're not printed every year, can any currency buffs explain to me why some years get multiple runs while other times there'll be a 2-3 year gap between series?)
Response by poster: Wow, that was fast, thanks! 2006, relatively speaking, didn't have that many more notes printed than 2007, so I wonder why they seem so much more prevalent. I guess my experience is (naturally) anecdotal, though.
posted by Kosh at 5:29 PM on February 1, 2010
posted by Kosh at 5:29 PM on February 1, 2010
Best answer: Nope! Treasury: Small Denominations
Series Year - A new series will result from a change in the Secretary of the Treasury, or a change to the note's appearance such as a new currency design. After the Secretary of the Treasury changes, a new series year is adopted (e.g. 1999). When the Treasurer of the United States changes, a suffix letter is added to the current series year (e.g. 1999A). Additional changes of the Treasurer, whereby the Secretary of the Treasury remains the same results in subsequent letter changes to the current series year (e.g. 1999B, 1999C, etc.).posted by smackfu at 5:30 PM on February 1, 2010
Best answer: Paper money in the US is pretty much printed continuously, except for the $2 bill, which is only printed when the Treasury needs more, which happens every few years. The year on the front of a US bill is just the series, i.e. when that design was adopted. The series will update when there's a new Treasurer of the US or Secretary of the Treasury, or the design of the bill itself is changed. There was no 2007 series for any bill since there wasn't a new Secretary of the Treasury or new designs.
posted by zsazsa at 5:30 PM on February 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by zsazsa at 5:30 PM on February 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by jckll at 5:27 PM on February 1, 2010 [1 favorite]