Format for star note serials

Series 1969D and prior

In some of the older series, so many runs of star notes were produced--and so many of these were partial runs, with many gaps in their serial number ranges--that I have adopted an abbreviated format for their listings.

The most important fact to remember is that, no matter whether a full run or a partial run of star notes was printed, a full standard run worth of serial numbers was always set aside for it. Thus, whenever a partial run was produced, some serial numbers were skipped over entirely. These "missing" numbers were not used in the next run; they were simply omitted from the series.

Therefore, since a standard print run of stars was 20,000 sheets at the time, each run of star notes was allowed a range of 640,000 serial numbers (since there are 32 notes to the printed sheet). And each such range always began and ended at multiples of 640,000, regardless of how many notes had been printed in previous runs. The following table gives the resulting ranges of serial numbers which correspond to each run number:

Run	Serial Numbers	Run	Serial Numbers	Run	Serial Numbers
1	00000001 - 00640000	16	09600001 - 10240000	31	19200001 - 19840000
2	00640001 - 01280000	17	10240001 - 10880000	32	19840001 - 20480000
3	01280001 - 01920000	18	10880001 - 11520000	33	20480001 - 21120000
4	01920001 - 02560000	19	11520001 - 12160000	34	21120001 - 21760000
5	02560001 - 03200000	20	12160001 - 12800000	35	21760001 - 22400000
6	03200001 - 03840000	21	12800001 - 13440000	36	22400001 - 23040000
7	03840001 - 04480000	22	13440001 - 14080000	37	23040001 - 23680000
8	04480001 - 05120000	23	14080001 - 14720000	38	23680001 - 24320000
9	05120001 - 05760000	24	14720001 - 15360000	39	24320001 - 24960000
10	05760001 - 06400000	25	15360001 - 16000000	40	24960001 - 25600000
11	06400001 - 07040000	26	16000001 - 16640000	41	25600001 - 26240000
12	07040001 - 07680000	27	16640001 - 17280000	42	26240001 - 26880000
13	07680001 - 08320000	28	17280001 - 17920000	43	26880001 - 27520000
14	08320001 - 08960000	29	17920001 - 18560000	44	27520001 - 28160000
15	08960001 - 09600000	30	18560001 - 19200000	45	28160001 - 28800000

The numbering can continue in this way through as many as 156 runs before running out of serial numbers, but no more than 45 runs of star notes were needed for any district, denomination, and series listed in the data on these pages.

In the monthly production tables, I have listed each run of star notes by its district and its run number. Thus, for example, a listing of "B#12" indicates printing of notes with serial numbers B 070 40001 * through B 076 80000 *.

As mentioned above, partial runs of star notes were often printed, and in this case certain serial numbers were skipped. There were two different systems for determining which serials were skipped and which were used.

First, in the era when regular notes were printed with serial numbers as high as 99999999, it was necessary to print a quarter-run of regular notes at the end of each block (since 100,000,000 notes equal 156.25 runs of 20,000 sheets of 32 notes each). Rather than using a nonstandard 5,000-sheet run to accomplish this, the BEP printed a full 20,000-sheet run, but only eight of the 32 notes on each sheet, positions A1 through H1, received regular serial numbers. The remaining 24 notes, positions A2 through H4, received star serial numbers for the same district. The star notes from these positions were numbered just as they would have been if the entire run had been star notes. Thus, the resulting partial run of star notes contained only 480,000 notes, or three-quarters of a usual run, and it was missing its first 160,000 serial numbers.

Partial runs of this type have been indicated in the monthly tables by the notation "[3/4]". Thus, for example, a listing of "B#12[3/4]" indicates printing of notes with serial numbers B 072 00001 * through B 076 80000 *. It also indicates that serial numbers B 070 40001 * through B 072 00000 * were never used for the series in question. Note that listings like this occur only when the corresponding district's regular notes change block letters, necessitating the unusual run at the end of the block.

Second, at the end of a series the BEP sometimes had fewer than 20,000 sheets remaining to be serialled. Rather than waste these leftover sheets, the BEP would print them as a partial run of star notes. The numbering equipment would still be set up so that notes on each sheet were separated by 20,000 serials; but since fewer than 20,000 sheets were printed, the result was many small gaps in the range of serial numbers used for the run. In particular, each group of 20,000 serial numbers within the run would be missing an amount of numbers equal to the amount of sheets omitted from the run; and the numbers actually used would be the lower range of each group of 20,000. (The example below should make this clearer.)

Partial runs of this type have been indicated in the monthly tables by noting the number of sheets actually printed, such as "[12000]". Thus, for example, a listing of "B#12[12000]" indicates that the following notes were (and were not) printed:

Position	Serials Printed	Serials NOT Printed
A1	B 070 40001 * - B 070 52000 *	B 070 52001 * - B 070 60000 *
B1	B 070 60001 * - B 070 72000 *	B 070 72001 * - B 070 80000 *
C1	B 070 80001 * - B 070 92000 *	B 070 92001 * - B 071 00000 *
D1	B 071 00001 * - B 071 12000 *	B 071 12001 * - B 071 20000 *
E1	B 071 20001 * - B 071 32000 *	B 071 32001 * - B 071 40000 *
F1	B 071 40001 * - B 071 52000 *	B 071 52001 * - B 071 60000 *
G1	B 071 60001 * - B 071 72000 *	B 071 72001 * - B 071 80000 *
H1	B 071 80001 * - B 071 92000 *	B 071 92001 * - B 072 00000 *
A2	B 072 00001 * - B 072 12000 *	B 072 12001 * - B 072 20000 *
B2	B 072 20001 * - B 072 32000 *	B 072 32001 * - B 072 40000 *
C2	B 072 40001 * - B 072 52000 *	B 072 52001 * - B 072 60000 *
D2	B 072 60001 * - B 072 72000 *	B 072 72001 * - B 072 80000 *
E2	B 072 80001 * - B 072 92000 *	B 072 92001 * - B 073 00000 *
F2	B 073 00001 * - B 073 12000 *	B 073 12001 * - B 073 20000 *
G2	B 073 20001 * - B 073 32000 *	B 073 32001 * - B 073 40000 *
H2	B 073 40001 * - B 073 52000 *	B 073 52001 * - B 073 60000 *
A3	B 073 60001 * - B 073 72000 *	B 073 72001 * - B 073 80000 *
B3	B 073 80001 * - B 073 92000 *	B 073 92001 * - B 074 00000 *
C3	B 074 00001 * - B 074 12000 *	B 074 12001 * - B 074 20000 *
D3	B 074 20001 * - B 074 32000 *	B 074 32001 * - B 074 40000 *
E3	B 074 40001 * - B 074 52000 *	B 074 52001 * - B 074 60000 *
F3	B 074 60001 * - B 074 72000 *	B 074 72001 * - B 074 80000 *
G3	B 074 80001 * - B 074 92000 *	B 074 92001 * - B 075 00000 *
H3	B 075 00001 * - B 075 12000 *	B 075 12001 * - B 075 20000 *
A4	B 075 20001 * - B 075 32000 *	B 075 32001 * - B 075 40000 *
B4	B 075 40001 * - B 075 52000 *	B 075 52001 * - B 075 60000 *
C4	B 075 60001 * - B 075 72000 *	B 075 72001 * - B 075 80000 *
D4	B 075 80001 * - B 075 92000 *	B 075 92001 * - B 076 00000 *
E4	B 076 00001 * - B 076 12000 *	B 076 12001 * - B 076 20000 *
F4	B 076 20001 * - B 076 32000 *	B 076 32001 * - B 076 40000 *
G4	B 076 40001 * - B 076 52000 *	B 076 52001 * - B 076 60000 *
H4	B 076 60001 * - B 076 72000 *	B 076 72001 * - B 076 80000 *

Within each position, the first 12,000 serial numbers are the ones used. If the partial run had been 5000 sheets, the serial numbers used for position A1 would have been B 070 40001 * through B 070 45000 *, and likewise for the other positions. Similarly, if the partial run had been 17,000 sheets, position A1 would have used serials B 070 40001 * through B 070 57000 *. In general, a run of N sheets will always use the first N of each 20,000 serial numbers in the run's assigned range.

Note, however, that in later series this convention was reversed; from Series 1974 onward, partial runs were printed to use the highest portion of the available serial range in each position, rather than the lowest as shown here.

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