1954 $1 NFP notes vs FP notes

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daning333
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Joined: Thu Dec 19, 2019 3:03 pm

1954 $1 NFP notes vs FP notes

Post by daning333 » Tue Jul 26, 2022 1:50 pm

Hi everyone

I have 2 consecutive 1954 $1 notes, Certified PMG 66 EPQ. Serial numbers *BM 0171407 / 408.
These are BABN printed notes
#407 FP is #24, BP #30
#408 FP #29 is VERY weak ( I needed a magnifying glass ) , BP #29 matches.

Is it common for FP to match BP ? Is this something special ?

I found this article on BWJM.CA, credit for research goes to Brent J. Mackie, GREAT research Brent !!

Since the Beattie/Rasminsky signature pair began in 1961, the desired notes were likely right in the middle of the above ranges (1964 being in the middle of 1961-1967). That logic seems plausible for the regular-issue notes, since they were ordered on a fairly constant and regular basis between 1961 and 1967, but the asterisk notes are a little different.

According to Esler's article, BABN only started printing *B/M notes in January of 1963. This means our desired notes would be closer to the start of the run. Furthermore, the article continues to mention that while *A/A notes were ordered from CBN regularly, the final order2 of delivered notes was placed in early 1965. This order began with *A/A 0404001, meaning that any missing plate number notes would precede this order, but they would not be too much earlier. Asterisk notes would see potential missing plate numbers somewhere in between the following points:

BABN: *B/M 0000001 - *B/M 11600003 (likely closer to the beginning)
CBN: *A/A 0091201 - *A/A 0404000 (likely closer to the end)

Armed with this information, we set off for coin shows, dealers' shops and friends' collections nationwide. Covertly examining every note we saw, we checked the plate numbers, front and back. For each of us, the first few days were fruitful and rewarding. Within a week, we had determined rough ranges for where these missing plate numbers would be found. Nevertheless, the top secret treasure hunt continued. At one point, another close friend and collector had almost caught on to what we were doing, so we had to run a little interference and get this person off the scent, lest our cover be blown.

So far, we have yet to find any notes missing a back plate number (BPN), as Esler's article suggests that we might. However, we did find a variety of notes missing a front plate number (FPN), from both BABN and CBN, regular-issue and asterisk notes. It quickly became obvious that "no-FPN" regular-issue notes are much harder to come by than their asterisk note counterparts, despite the theoretical range being more than an order of magnitude larger. This simply serves to illustrate the preservation ratio of asterisk notes compared to regular-issue notes.

The table below summarizes our results:

BABN Regular Notes Highest observed with FPN T/M 8560186 2 observed notes w/o FPN
Theoretical maximum range:
4,209,716 notes
Lowest observed without FPN U/M 0391953
Highest observed without FPN U/M 0908843
Lowest observed with FPN U/M 2769901
BABN Asterisk Notes Highest observed with FPN *B/M 0317703 13 observed notes w/o FPN
Theoretical maximum range:
172,900 notes
Lowest observed without FPN *B/M 0320855 .....my 2 consecutive NFP notes fall into this range.
Highest observed without FPN *B/M 0476595



Lowest observed with FPN *B/M 0490603..........NOTE MY SERIAL NUMBERS ARE WILL BELOW THIS NUMBER
............................
Do I have something special here ?



CBN Regular Notes Highest observed with FPN W/N 5762180 2 observed notes w/o FPN
Theoretical maximum range:
4,653,519 notes
Lowest observed without FPN W/N 6167127
Highest observed without FPN W/N 9584154
Lowest observed with FPN X/N 0415699
CBN Asterisk Notes All observed notes (*A/A) featured both front and back plate numbers.


I also have 4 consecutive NFP CBN printed WN 8961940 - 940 where the BP number alternate 103/ 104/ 103/ 104.
Is that normal ?

Thanks in advance for any comments !!

Dan

Nota_phil
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Re: 1954 $1 NFP notes vs FP notes

Post by Nota_phil » Thu Jul 28, 2022 6:57 am

Hey Dan,

You have presented a lot of info (to unpack) & asked a lot of questions on your post. I don't have all the answers since the info on missing FPN is still new. However, I will try to answer some of your questions to the best of my knowledge.

RE:
Is it common for FP to match BP ? Is this something special ?
(FPN = Front Position Number & BPN= Back Position Numbers; These are tiny position numbers which identify what position the note was on the sheet when printed. They were mostly used by the printers but in the 1960's the printers thought they could do without the FPN. The RCMP disagreed & wanted them back on- so it was a short lived exercise in printing).

Sometimes the FPN matches the BPN in the older series but often they don't. Collectors don't collect by these numbers so it really is irrelevant TBH for most notes. The fact that FPN were missing for some prefixes has yielded some collector interest & I remember talking about this with Brent years ago.

All FPN match BPN in today's polymers.

RE: your note & *B/M ranges
BABN Asterisk Notes Highest observed with FPN *B/M 0317703 13 observed notes w/o FPN
Theoretical maximum range:
172,900 notes
Lowest observed without FPN *B/M 0320855 .....my 2 consecutive NFP notes fall into this range.
Highest observed without FPN *B/M 0476595
-The observed range is much more reliable than the theoretical range from 01 to 1160003. I would imagine that was a starting point. I've seen many low *B/M with the FPN and many higher than 0.47M so I would be more inclined to believe the range to be closer to the observed range.

If your note is
Serial numbers *BM 0171407 / 408.
then it falls outside the 0320855 to 0476595 range. And besides, your notes have the FPN 24 &29 right (or have I misunderstood you?). Sometimes it is very difficult to see the FPN/BPN so that's not new either.

Hope this answers some of your questions.
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Nota_phil
Posts: 152
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Re: 1954 $1 NFP notes vs FP notes

Post by Nota_phil » Thu Jul 28, 2022 7:29 am

Just realized that everybody likes pictures- so here's a few to help explain the above:
Below that is the *B/M without the FPN & crop image to show where it is missing.
The last image shows a close up crop of BC-37b 1954 F/N change-over showing the FPN (Front Position Number) just above the border of the horizontal "BANK OF CANADA" bar:
Attachments
Canada$1 BC37bAi_887.jpeg
Canada$1 BC37bAi_887.jpeg (121.61 KiB) Viewed 3238 times
Canada$1 886 crop .jpg
Canada$1 886 crop .jpg (80.29 KiB) Viewed 3238 times
FN7984906 crop.jpg
FN7984906 crop.jpg (73.57 KiB) Viewed 3238 times
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daning333
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Dec 19, 2019 3:03 pm

Re: 1954 $1 NFP notes vs FP notes

Post by daning333 » Sat Aug 20, 2022 11:00 am

Hi, I'm sorry for the delay in repsonding. it's been a bad month for medical issues regarding my in-laws in thier mid 90's.

Anyway , thanks for the info. I assume we all hope to one day find something special and unique. But I really like these notes regardless.

I am always on the search for the " UM" NFP to complete the collection.

Take care and thx again !!

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CanuckCoinGirl
Posts: 187
Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2022 6:41 pm

Re: 1954 $1 NFP notes vs FP notes

Post by CanuckCoinGirl » Thu Aug 25, 2022 6:31 pm

daning333 wrote:
Sat Aug 20, 2022 11:00 am

Anyway , thanks for the info. I assume we all hope to one day find something special and unique. But I really like these notes regardless.

I am always on the search for the " UM" NFP to complete the collection.

Take care and thx again !!
sometimes the best stuff really is just the things that 'you' really like....

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