Star Note Lookup

What is a star note?

A star note is a replacement bill the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) prints when a regular note is spoiled or misprinted during production. Because no two U.S. notes may share a serial number, the spoiled note can’t simply be reprinted — instead the BEP prints a special replacement from a separate batch, marked with a star (★) in place of the usual suffix letter at the end of the serial number.

Star notes are printed in much smaller quantities than regular notes, which is exactly why collectors chase them: the smaller the print run your note came from, the rarer — and potentially more valuable — it is.

How much is my star note worth?

Three things drive a star note’s value: run size (rarity), condition, and any fancy serial number. The lookup combines all three into an estimated value range. As a rough guide, most modern circulated star notes from full 3.2M runs are worth little over face value, small runs (≤640,000) bring a modest premium, and crisp uncirculated notes from tiny runs can be worth many times face.

Our estimates are calibrated from real recent eBay sold prices — actual market data, not guesses — and shown as the market (recently-sold) price. If you’re selling, you’ll net less: roughly 85% on eBay after fees, or about half to a dealer. It’s an estimate, not a formal appraisal — always confirm against recent sold listings for your exact note before buying or selling.

Star note value by denomination

• $1 star notes are the most commonly found; only small-run or fancy-serial examples carry a real premium.
• $2 star notes are scarcer by nature and popular with collectors — older series and small runs do best.
• $5, $10 and $20 star notes follow the same rule: run size and condition decide value.
• $50 and $100 star notes can come from genuinely tiny runs, but the higher face value means a smaller buyer pool, so they’re sometimes harder to sell at a premium.

See the full star note value chart for estimated worth by denomination and rarity tier.

Does a fancy serial number make it worth more?

Often dramatically. A fancy serial number — a collectible digit pattern — adds a premium on top of the run-size and condition value, and on a star note the two scarcities compound into the most desirable (and valuable) notes of all. How much depends entirely on the pattern:

• Top tier — solids (e.g. 88888888), perfect ladders (12345678), and single-digit low serials (00000001): hundreds to thousands of dollars.
• Mid tier — super radars, super repeaters, true binaries, seven-of-a-kind: tens to a few hundred.
• Modest — plain radars, repeaters, binaries and birthday dates: usually about $5–$50.

Most serial numbers are ordinary and carry no premium, so check before you assume. Run your serial through the free fancy serial number checker to see every pattern it matches and an estimated value by condition.

How to read a star note serial number

Type the serial number into the tool exactly as it appears on your bill. Here’s how to read it:

• The star (★) sits at the very end of the serial number. No star = it’s an ordinary note, not a star note.
• Federal Reserve district — on $1 and $2 notes it’s the first letter of the serial; on $5 and higher (1996 onward) it’s the second letter. A = Boston, B = New York, C = Philadelphia, D = Cleveland, E = Richmond, F = Atlanta, G = Chicago, H = St. Louis, I = Minneapolis, J = Kansas City, K = Dallas, L = San Francisco.
• Series year is printed on the front near the portrait (e.g. 2017A or 2021). Pick the matching year in the tool — a single missed letter (1988 vs 1988A) is the most common reason a lookup comes up empty.
• Printing facility — a small FW by the face plate number means Fort Worth; no FW means Washington, DC.

What run size counts as rare?

Collectors use the number of notes in your specific run as the main rarity signal — and rarity is what drives value:

• ≤ 160,000 — Extremely Rare
• ≤ 320,000 — Very Rare
• ≤ 640,000 — Rare (the classic “worth setting aside” cutoff)
• ≤ 1,920,000 — Scarce
• full ~3,200,000 run — Common, usually close to face value

A full print run is 3.2 million notes (100,000 sheets of 32). Anything well below that was a partial run — and the smaller it is, the more it’s worth.

Some of the rarest (and most valuable) star notes

A few standouts collectors actively hunt: the Series 2017 $1 Boston star (a ~25,000-note run), the Series 2009 $1 New York star (~32,000), and the famous Series 2013 $1 New York duplicate, where Washington and Fort Worth printed the same serials — a verified matched DC+FW pair has sold for thousands. The lookup flags the 2013 duplicate automatically if your note qualifies. See the full list of rarest star notes.

Where our star note value data comes from

Run sizes come from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s official monthly production reports (public-domain U.S. government data), combined with the long-running serial-number research at uspapermoney.info, and cross-checked across sources to fill gaps and catch errors. Value estimates are calibrated against real recent eBay sold prices. We refresh the data as the BEP publishes new figures, so coverage runs from Series 1976 through the current 2021 notes.

Rarity tiers follow the run-size cutoffs collectors actually use, and value figures are transparent estimates from run size, condition and serial pattern — a starting point for research, not a formal appraisal. For a high-value note, confirm with recent sold prices and consider professional grading (PMG/PCGS). More on our methodology.