What's with these $20 bills???

Factual Questions
1

I just got back from the ATM, where I withdrew $120. I recieved 6 twenty dollar bills, oddly enough with sequential serial numbers. In addition to that, there is a start to the right of the last number. Also, the serial numbers are unbelievably low.

BA00001887 *

All the way to…

BA00001892 *

The star is a normal 5-pointed star. The bill series is 1999.

Does anyone have any idea what is going on? I am sure this isn’t anything unusual, but of the hundereds of $20 bills I have come across, I have never noticed anything like this before. I checked all the other $20s I have access to, and nothing. Thanks…

2

“Star” notes are merely replacements for bills that were spoiled in printing. They cannot by law have the same identical serial number as the spoiled bill.

You can imagine that the numbers of spoiled bills is a very small percentage of bills printed, therefore you don’t notice them as often.

We get calls almost every day in our coin shop from people who have gotten one, or have heard that they are valuable.

Not true, as a generalization.

3

Staff Report: Why is there sometimes a star in the serial number of U.S. paper money?