In the production of banknotes some notes are discarded due to incomplete printing, defective, or folded, or creased paper. To maintain the sequence of the notes printed special, replacement notes are produced, usually with a special prefix, or suffix added to the serial number to identify them. For example the United States places a "*" at the end of the serial number to identify these replacement notes and when placed in the bundle complete the sequence of the notes. Some countries use a special prefix such as "ZA" or simply a single letter. The basic reference for world banknotes is the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money (SCWPM) which lists many of these. What this report does is provide an easy reference to identifying these notes.

Replacement notes are highly collectible, and tend to be valued much higher then regular issued banknotes since they are more difficult to find, and rarer then regular issues. For example a USA 1 dollar 1928 may go for $300 in unc, and the same note with "*" at the end of the serial number may be worth $15.000 in unc. A Cayman Islands 40 dollars 1974 with a "Z" before the inspection number for $250 in unc may be worth $250, while the normal issue in uncirculated is worth only $165. Many collectors may have notes in their collection worth many times what they think it is worth simply because they do not know of to identify these replacement notes. This report will assist you in identifying these notes and help you to spot replacement notes when buying.

As new notes are issued, and countries change the means to identify their replacement notes, or if you have any information concerning the data presented here, please feel free to contact us and share your information.

This report is compliments of Ronny Hick, and translated by Nachthund.