Trading my five for your.... ?

November 6, 2010 6:44 PM

Here's one for the dollar collectors. I have a five dollar bill with solid sevens as its serial number. Is it of any value, and how much will it fetch on the market?
posted by squirtle to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (15 answers total)

Was it in circulation prior to your getting your hands on it? If so, I'm pretty sure it has a value of about $5. Currency collectors I have known have told me that collecting is not the sort of hobby you undertake for the sake of expecting any sort of profit, and these were people who generally only had uncirculated or at least Very Fine graded old coins.
posted by Gilbert at 6:57 PM on November 6, 2010

Response by poster: I'm a total newb at this... so can you explain what circulation is, and how to find out if it's circulated or uncirculated?
posted by squirtle at 7:00 PM on November 6, 2010

Response by poster: I got it as change at a cash register. So yeah, it's circulated.
posted by squirtle at 7:09 PM on November 6, 2010

If it turns out not to be worth more than $5 as a numismatic collector's item, you could put it on Ebay with some good pictures and an over-the-top "lucky number seven" shaggy-dog story, a la the ghost jar. You never know, somebody might bid it up... there are gamblers out there with money to burn on "luck".
posted by vorfeed at 7:19 PM on November 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

Actually you can look around at completed ebay auctions and see what some have been selling for with similar characteristics. Generally yes, you need money in good condition but for something weird and quirky like serial numbers, you've got more leeway. Here are a few similar related auctions

- used $5 bill with "unique" serial numbers went for $22
- $1 bill with four sevens went for $2
- $1 bill wtih "fancy" serial number went for $9, was in nearly uncirculated condition
- here's an uncompleted listing for a very similar (lots of 7s) uncirc note
posted by jessamyn at 7:23 PM on November 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

It is not the luck that makes this valuable to me or a gambler. I play liar's poker and this would be a huge winning bill. I would give you 4x the face value of a bill like this, any denomination, up to and including a $100.
posted by AugustWest at 7:24 PM on November 6, 2010 [5 favorites]

I would probably pay $10 for it. I'm not a collector, it just strikes me as vaguely cool.
posted by J. Wilson at 8:19 PM on November 6, 2010

Yeah all sevens. Has a huge cool factor. Build a story around
how lucky it has been. Set the minimum bid at $100.00. Good Luck!
posted by Muirwylde at 8:23 PM on November 6, 2010

I sold this bill to a guy on Where's George? for $30.00. It was uncirculated.
posted by pjern at 8:26 PM on November 6, 2010

I haven't played Liar's Poker in years, but it's what immediately came to mind. I'd take AugustWest up on the offer, and I'm going to try to remember this if I ever notice a bill with such a good serial number.
posted by ymendel at 10:22 PM on November 6, 2010

AugustWest, I had actually considered the liar's poker angle, but it seemed a bit fishy to me. The first rule on your link mentions that "Hoarding ringers is strictly not allowed." Wouldn't that get you shivved?
I was not aware of the eBay angle that Jessamyn mentioned, nor had I considered that 7 is a very lucky number to many people. If it were me, I would've just chalked it up to a weird day. But maybe that says more about me.
posted by Gilbert at 10:31 PM on November 6, 2010

Definitely sign up at Where's George and list it in the "Bill Collecting and Numismatics" forum. If you can scan it or take a good photo, that will be helpful.
posted by bink at 12:59 AM on November 7, 2010

On one hand, sure, it's a minor curiosity in a wellwhaddayaknow-double-egg-yolk kind of way. On the other hand, 77777777 is precisely as rare as 29364227 or 42898235, etc, etc... How much is your time worth?
posted by applemeat at 12:24 PM on November 7, 2010

They sell these at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in DC. Although I don't think they are all 7's, just a run of 7's. The markup is pretty decent, maybe a few hundred percent. They only sell one online, but in person they had a lot more options, including Asian lucky numbers.
posted by smackfu at 7:07 AM on November 8, 2010

I've got an uncirculated palindromatic $1 that I pulled out of a brick of $1000. It never occurred to me that someone would spend as much for it as some of those ebayers seem to be for related items.
posted by Nabubrush at 4:22 PM on November 9, 2010