Series 1953A $2 Legal Tender Star Replacement Note (Priest / Anderson) – Red Seal – Fr. 1510* 

BEAUTIFUL !!

Crisp Choice Uncirculated (CU 63–64)

Item Overview

• Denomination: $2.00 ("Two Dollars / Will Pay to the Bearer on Demand")

• Currency Type: Small-Size United States Legal Tender Note (Red Treasury Seal & Red Serial Numbers with Star Prefix)

• Series: Series 1953 A

• Catalog Reference: Friedberg # 1510* (Fr. 1510* / Star Replacement Note)

• Serial Number: * 02250049 A

• Signatures / Officials:

  • Ivy Baker Priest (Treasurer of the United States)

  • Robert B. Anderson (Secretary of the Treasury)

• Plate Position / Identifiers:

  • Check Letter & Quadrant: E (upper left quadrant)

  • Face Plate Number: E 11 (lower right)

• Vignettes & Seal:

  • Obverse Portrait: Thomas Jefferson centered in a dark oval frame.

  • Treasury Seal: Vivid scalloped Red Treasury Seal overprinted at the right over stylized denomination lathework.

  • Reverse (Standard for Type): Thomas Jefferson's historic estate, Monticello, in Charlottesville, Virginia (without the national motto "IN GOD WE TRUST").

Scarcity & Variety Context

• Legal Tender "Red Seals": Unlike Federal Reserve Notes backed by debt or Silver Certificates backed by bullion deposits, United States Notes were direct obligations of the federal government issued under Civil War legal tender acts.

• Low Star Production: Red seal $2 star notes represent replacement runs where defective sheets were destroyed and replaced at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP). Star replacements for Series 1953A are substantially scarcer than the regular circulating issue, with approximately 3.9 million star notes produced across the entire run.

Fancy Serial Breakdown

• Serial Number Analysis: 02250049

  • Digits Present: 0, 2, 4, 5, 9.

  • Pattern Breakdown: Features paired doubles with 22 and 00 (02250049). While not meeting the strict mathematical threshold of a radar, repeater, or true binary, it is a very low 7-digit count beginning with 02M that presents cleanly on the note face.

Condition & Visual Grade

• Assigned Technical Grade: Crisp Choice Uncirculated (CU 63 – CU 64)

• Preservation Highlights:

  • Unhandled, pack-fresh paper fabric retaining full original crispness, thickness, and tactile BEP intaglio embossing.

  • Completely flat body showing zero vertical wallet folds, center bends, or counting crinkles.

  • Clean, sharp 90-degree corners and sound, unsoftened edges throughout.

  • Pristine white paper surface with no pinholes, finger smudges, stains, or teller marks.

  • Deep, unfaded crimson-red ink on both the scalloped Treasury seal and the dual star serial numbers.

• Centering:

  • Obverse: Generous margins all the way around, with slightly wider spacing along the left and bottom margins relative to the top/right inner frame borders.