When I learned that Harriet Tubman would be the face on the new $20 bill, I rejoiced. She is a woman so deserving of such an honor. Then the collector in me asked a practical question that I’m sure was on the minds of many:
Will the new bill be a valuable collectible?
We all know the story of the courageous Tubman and her heroic campaign to free other enslaved Africans during a dark period in our country’s history. I’m not one of those who consider this to be an affront to her. A woman overburdened by poverty, she knew the value of money and the freedom it could buy. She did not eschew it. While she had to rely on others to further her work as a freedom-fighter, she also sold portraits of herself to make money.
So seeing her on a $20 bill is not sacrilegious.
Tubman replaces President Andrew Jackson, who first appeared on the $20 bill in 1928, replacing President Grover Cleveland. Hers is one of three new designs of our paper money (along with the $10 and $5), but we won’t likely see their new look until 2020 and the actual bills until around 2030. Billions of the Tubman bills will be available. When the new $100 Benjamin was released a few years ago, 3.5 billion bills were put into circulation by the Federal Reserve. There are 8.6 billion of the Andrew Jacksons are out there now (he’ll be moved to the back of the new bill).
I’m certain the novelty and excitement of the Tubman $20 will prompt many people to hoard as many of them as possible – as a keepsake and an investment. Most, however, will be worth no more than their face value.
Some of them, though, have the potential to be valuable to collectors of U.S. currency. These collectors don’t buy just any bills; they’re looking for special bills, especially those with so-called “fancy” serial numbers:
Bills with the same numbers (called “solids”): such as 77777777.
Bills with numbers in sequence (“ladders”): 12345678
Bills with numbers that read the same left and right (“radar”): 29866892
Bills with two pairs of the same digits (“repeaters”): 25442544
These are just some of the combinations on a variety of denominations that collectors are seeking, along with bills with low serial numbers.
There are also collectors of misprinted money; these bills are not necessarily rare but are said to be popular and could sell above their face value. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which prints money at the request of the Federal Reserve and sells it to the agency (the U.S. Mint does the coins), tries to catch these before they leave the premises.
When new bills are issued, the government starts the serial number at 00000001 (always eight numbers), and the low numbers are favored by collectors. But even the numbers that reach close to 99999999 can be a winner because that doesn’t happen often. The numbers and letters have their own meanings.
A 2013 Boston Globe story quoted an auction-house official who predicted that the first serial number of 00000001 from the new $100 Benjamins, released that year, could sell at auction for $10,000 to $15,000. The government spent 10 years developing that new bill and its debut was delayed because of some problems in the printing.
Your chance of getting a Tubman bill – or any other new bill – with that first number is very slim. Low numbers are usually spotted by bank employees working in the vaults or those in businesses where large amounts of cash is handled, the auction-house official told the Globe.
There are several sites on the web that offer advice on collecting $20 bills, facts on the bills and a guide on values. I found some Jackson bills that had been sold on eBay, for a high of $2,000 to $3,000 for new and old bills, most of which had never been widely circulated.
