Presentation Materials From Past Club Meetings

Silver Certificates of the Series 1935

The years 1935- 1957 which includes Silver Certificates of Series 1935 thru Series 1935- H was a period of time in which many changes were made at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

The first major change was the 1'Great Seal 11 being printed on both the obverse and reverse as well as the reverse of the "Great Seal " (the Pyramid) being printed on the reverse. This was when the signatures were no longer printed with the rest of the design but were typographically printed later .

Also , on the 1935-A series , there were the BROWN and YELLOW seals used for emergency war issues . The Brown seal had the overprint of "HAWAII " and was restricted to use in that region . The Yellow seal was designated for use in North Africa . The concept being that if either Japan or Germany acquired large sums of this "special " currency , it could readily be demonetized .

It was not at BEP , but during WWII , the phenomenon of the "Short Snorter" came about. This was the idea of signing a piece of currency by those present and indicating the date and place of the signing and denoting it as a "Short Snorter " normally along the perimeter. These were sort of a simple scrapbook of who , where and when .

An outgrowth of this signing bill s was the "Courtesy Signature " on bills by the Treasurer and/or the Secretary of the Treasury . Most of the bills with "Courtesy Signature" will be Georgia Neese Clark (from Richland , KS) , Ivy Baker Priest , Francine I. Neff or Mary Ellen Withrow .

The 1935- D serles saw the transition from 12 subject sheets to 18 subject sheets and the Series 1935-G was when the motto "IN GOD WE TRUST" was added to the reverse.

Experiments with the fabric content of the "paper" were done with the Series 1928-A, 1928-B, 1935 and 1935- A. I am going to concentrate on the Series 1935-A experiment when the BEP used a red "R" or red "S" in the lower right corner of the obverse. Most reference material proclaim that the red "R" was the regular "paper" and the red "S" was the special "paper.

In the March 2011 issue of the NUMISMATIST, Chip Scoppa had a very informative report on his research that turns the traditional thinking upside down.

BEP records for previous experimental studies were done by using block numbers with the highest block being the " control " . (Block Numbers refer to the first and last characters of the serial number.) An experiment with the 1928-A and 1928 - B had blocks XB and YB having varying proportions of rag while the ZB block was the control or the ratio that had been being used . With the 1935 series , blocks AB and BB were experimental material and CB was the control .

The red and blue fibers in the "paper" of the time that served as anti-counterfeiting devices and strength were silk. Since silk was in great demand during WWII for use in parachutes, Scoppa ' s theory is that the BEP was investigating the use of a synthetic material called rayon. He subscribes to the "R" group being the test group with the rayon fibers and the "S" group being the control with the silk fibers.

On the 1935-A experiment, block S70---C to S72---C had the red "R" while the higher block S73---C to S75---C had the red "S". Does the red "R" stand for rayon and the red "S" stand for silk? This maintains consistency with previous BEP experiments but is counter to conventional theory on the red "R" and "S".

Collecting and Investing in Copper or Copper: The New Silver?

By Doug West C and D Coins

April 2011

Copper Facts:

Copper is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity.
Used for thousands of years
Copper is an abundant element with only a tiny fraction of these reserves are economically viable to recover
Price $0.60 per pound in 1999, $4.30 per pound in 2011
Modern uses: home and commercial plumbing and electrical wiring, electrical and electronic equipment, cars, …

Units of Measure