1950 $10 Bill Value

The series is printed right of Hamilton's portrait. Six exist, each with its own signature pair. The printage figures from uspapermoney.info show why five of them are common and one is not.

1950E was printed for only three districts: New York (B) with 37.8 million notes, Chicago (G) with 65.08 million, and San Francisco (L) with 17.28 million. The letter is in the black seal and at the start of the serial number.

Greysheet prices them differently. New York runs $11 to $200, with MS66 at $130 and MS67 at $260. Chicago runs $11 to $170 and San Francisco $11 to $100. A circulated 1950E from any of the three is still near the bottom of its range, so this check matters most for crisp notes.

For 1950 through 1950D the district barely moves the price. One quirk: 1950D had no Minneapolis printing at all, so a 1950D with the letter I does not exist. If you think you have one, read the series again.

1950E stars are the best notes in the series. Only 7.64 million were printed, the smallest star run of the six, and Greysheet's prices reflect it.

Greysheet publishes no prices for Series 1950 through 1950D star notes, which means you have to work from recent sales. They are certainly worth more than regular notes from the same series, and the Series 1950 stars, with 13.08 million printed against nearly a billion regular notes, are the ones to look at first.

Do not take the first offer on any of them. Search completed auctions for your exact series, district and grade. Our star note guide explains why runs differ so much.

Series dates mark a signature combination, and the presses kept running long after. The uspapermoney.info delivery records show Series 1950 tens arriving from November 1950 to October 1953, and Series 1950E from September 1965 to September 1968. A 1950E ten is a note from the Johnson administration with a Truman era date on it.

That gap is why the series letter, not the year, decides value on these notes. 1950A, the biggest printing at over 1.2 billion notes, is common in every grade. 1950E, at about a tenth of that, is the one collectors look for.

The star share grew series by series. In Series 1950, 13,080,000 stars were printed against 941,708,000 regular notes, about 1.4 percent. In 1950A it was 60,784,000 against 1,201,952,000, about 5 percent. In 1950E it was 7,640,000 against 120,160,000, about 6.4 percent.

Two things follow. First, a Series 1950 star is proportionally the scarcest star of the run, even though Greysheet does not publish a price for it. Second, the 1950E star is the rarest in absolute numbers, which is what the market pays for and why it carries the highest published prices. If you have either, it is worth checking recent auction results before selling.

The 1950 redesign shrank the Treasury seal, the gray TEN and the Federal Reserve seal, added spikes around the Federal Reserve seal, and put WASHINGTON, D.C. between the seal and the serial. Wikipedia's history of the ten describes the change. The photo above shows the small spiked seal clearly.

A 1934 ten has a larger round seal with no spikes, and the earliest 1934 notes have a pale green Treasury seal. See our 1934 $10 bill guide if yours looks like that. If your ten is newer than 1950E, it is a Series 1963 or later and in circulated condition is worth face.

Lay the note flat under a single light and tilt it. Every fold catches the light as a line. A note with no lines, square corners and stiff paper is uncirculated, and that is the only condition where the higher numbers on this page apply. One faint fold is about uncirculated. Several folds with crisp paper is extremely fine or very fine. Limp paper with heavy creases and soft corners is fine or below, which for 1950 through 1950D means $11 to $15.

Also check the edges. Notes that were trimmed to tidy up worn margins, or that have pinholes from being stapled or pinned, grade lower even if the paper looks crisp. So do notes with writing, bank stamps or stains.

Be honest with yourself about this step. Most of the disappointment people feel when they try to sell an old note comes from grading their own note two or three steps too high. The banknote grading scale lists what each grade allows.

For common notes, a local coin shop will usually buy at a small premium over face, and eBay works if you sell several together. Selling one $11 note online loses most of the margin to fees and postage.

For a 1950E New York or Chicago in uncirculated condition, or any 1950E star, compare offers. Greysheet's CPG figures are retail prices; a dealer buying from you will pay less, because they have to resell. Auction archives from the big paper money auction houses show real realized prices for graded examples. Our where to sell guide explains when each option makes sense.

Circulated 1950 to 1950D without a star: $11 to $15, keep or spend. Uncirculated 1950 Boston: Greysheet lists MS66 at $90 and MS67 at $130, so top grade early notes are worth grading. Any 1950E in crisp condition: worth holding, especially New York. Any 1950E star: worth grading.

The 1950 $5 and 1950 $20 follow the same pattern, with 1950E as the short final series. If you have a stack of 1950s notes, sort by series letter first and you will find the few that matter in a minute.