Project 2013B: Welcome

Welcome to Project 2013B, a project connecting people with matching 2013B 'Duplicated Serial Number' star notes.

Project 2013B is an attempt to connect people with matching $1 star notes (specifically series 2013 with a B seal) that have a 'Duplicated Serial Number' error. This was a printing error by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, in which a range of serial numbers that were printed on $1 banknotes at their Washington DC facility, were accidently printed again at their Fort Worth, TX facility.

Normally, every $1 bill of a given series (year) will have its own unique serial number, but this was not the case in the print runs of these 'New York' (B seal) Federal Reserve Notes. The main difference between the two bills is a tiny indicator showing if it was printed in Fort Worth or in Washington DC.

To be a valid error note, the duplicated serial numbers MUST fall within one of these two serial number ranges:

B00000001*-B00250000* or B03200001*-B09600000*

Any serial number that falls outside of these ranges, were serial numbers that were NOT duplicated by the Fort Worth BEP facility.

The error in detail

This duplicated print run only applies to series 2013 bills with the serial numbers in the ranges of B00000001* to B00250000* and B03200001* to B09600000*

Location of B seal denoting New York Federal Reserve Note

The 'star' after the serial number indicates that the bill is a replacement banknote. A replacement banknote, commonly referred to as a star note, is a banknote that is printed to replace another banknote and is used as a control mechanism for governments or monetary authorities to know the exact number of banknotes being printed. The bills being replaced could be faulty ones (where something went wrong in the printing process) or to replace bills that are so worn out that the government pulls them from circulation and destroys them.

Location of B serial number suffix, the 'star', and the "Series 2013" indicator

The difference between a note printed in Washington, and one printed in Fort Worth, can be found in the Face Plate Text. If the number has an 'FW' in front of it, it was printed in the Fort Worth, Texas facility; otherwise it was printed in Washington DC.

Locations of key information

What are they worth?

Typically, one owner will buy the bill from the other owner in order to physically assemble a ‘matching pair.’ Individually, the notes are not worth much, but when paired together, and depending of the condition of the two bills, the value can approach $10,000 (or more!). 😮

Depending largely on condition, and the serial number (a very low serial number like 00000001 would be worth much more than say a serial number like 09563067). Only 20 or so completed pairs have been auctioned off, so the value is still to be fully determined, and the results have varied wildly for pairs with identical grades (condition) to each other. With the average life-span of a dollar bill being 3.7 years, the rarity of a matched pair could become increasingly difficult and rare ($$$) as time goes on.

The 'Database'

Project 2013B maintains a database of serial numbers submitted by both paper money collectors and the general public alike. The email addresses of each member are kept private, and only when the project's administrator discovers that both the Fort Worth and Washington printed banknotes have been submitted for a given serial number, does he contact both parties that they have a 'matching pair'. REMEMBER to occasionally check your email's spam folder as sometimes Project 2013B notifications end up there. The other alternative is to visit this website's blog (or subscribe to the newsletter) to see the latest list of serial numbers where we still need to hear back from one or both owners.

Submit your bill(s) today!

Have a 2013B $1 star note that is not in the database? Submit yours here:

https://project2013b.blogspot.com/p/submit.html

I submitted my bill... now what?

You are not required to do anything else, unless of course your email address has changed. If, or when, a bill is submitted to the database, that has the same serial number as your bill, this website administrator will contact you.

I was contacted my bill has a match... now what?

You are contacted within 24 hours of a match being detected in the database (list) of serial numbers. Once BOTH banknote owners respond back, I give them the email address of the other owner and you then begin negotiations. The other owner might only want to buy your bill, or for you to sell yours to them, or you BOTH may want to sell your bills as a matched pair at auction. Project 2013B will give you a fairly long and detailed list of options on how to procede.

A word about email addresses

Rest assured that your email address will NEVER be publicly viewable, nor publicly shared. The email addresses will only be used by myself (the database administrator) to contact owners when their bill has a matching serial number on the list.

Inforgraphic

How the project works in one handy-dandy infographic.

Project 2013B Infographic

Confirmed Match!

Here is an example of a matching pair of notes with the duplicate serial number error that was detected on this very website:

A confirmed match!

Project History

Back around 2017, in an attempt to help currency collecting community in finding a matching pair of notes, Mr. Ed Zegers of Maryland and Mr. Karol Winograd of Florida started a project of recording all the serial numbers submitted to them by fellow collectors. For 3 years Karol had been sending monthly project status updates and a spreadsheet of all the notes recorded to date, which by now grew to over 18,500, and 11 confirmed matched pairs! Unfortunately, citing family reasons, as of the end of September 2021, Karol had to end his involvement with the project. And that's where I came in.

With Project 2013B, and as a holder of ten 2013B star notes myself, I maintain and update the spreadsheet copy I received from the Zegers/Winograd project back in 2021, but in a more automated fashion. I hope to expand the website in the future to include collector resources, and information on other collectible and rare banknotes as well.

Submitted prior to October 1, 2021?

The 2013B database does NOT have your email contact information, due to the previous list owners respect for his members' privacy. After putting the message out for over 2 years for Zegers-Winograd past members to send in their contact information to Project 2013B, the remaining serial numbers with no contact info were PURGED. See https://project2013b.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-great-purge-of-2023.html

Past Zegers-Winograd members who did not send in their contact info will have to resubmit their serial numbers: https://project2013b.blogspot.com/p/submit.html

Still have questions?

If you have questions that are not answered by this page, please check out my 'Frequently Asked Questions' (FAQ) page before contacting me.

You read teh FAQ first right?

Project News

Get news regarding this project delievered to your email inbox by subscribing to my newsletter. It's FREE. Approximately once a month it will issue of list of people's 'Owner IDs' who need to contact this website who (for whatever reason) have not responded to my attempts to contact them that they have a bill that matches another bill with the same serial number in the database. Think of it as 'insurance' in case you happen to change your email address and forget to update it at this website, or, rarely checks their email's spam folder.