1950 $5 Bill Value

The series letter is printed to the right of Lincoln's portrait, under the word SERIES. Each letter marks a new pair of signatures. The printage figures below come from the serial tables at uspapermoney.info, which compile Bureau of Engraving and Printing delivery records.

Greysheet's CPG retail range for Series 1950 runs $6 to $100, and 1950A through 1950D mostly run $5 to $24. In plain terms: a folded note from any of those is a $5 to $10 note, and an uncirculated one is a $15 to $25 note with a few exceptions at the top.

Those exceptions are where the money is. The table pulls out the varieties that price above the crowd.

1950E was the last printing of the design and the shortest. It was made for only three districts: New York (82.0 million), San Francisco (24.4 million), and Chicago (14.76 million). Chicago notes carry the district letter G in the seal and at the start of the serial number.

That 14.76 million figure sounds large, but it is a fraction of any earlier series, and most of those notes were spent and destroyed. A crisp 1950E Chicago note is a $40 to $110 note. A worn one is still worth a premium over the other series.

If your note is a 1950E with a letter other than B, G, or L in the seal, check again: those were the only three districts printed.

A series date marks when a design and signature combination was approved, not when a particular note was printed. The uspapermoney.info delivery records make that obvious. Series 1950 fives were delivered from November 1950 to September 1953. Series 1950E fives were delivered from September 1965 to July 1967, fifteen years after the date printed on them.

Series also overlapped. 1950C deliveries ran to March 1963 and 1950D started in January 1963, so for a few months both were coming off the presses. This is why the series letter matters and the year alone does not: a 1950E and a 1950 look nearly identical, and one is worth several times the other in uncirculated condition.

Stars made up only about 1.4 percent of Series 1950 production, according to the uspapermoney.info tables. By 1950E the share had risen to more than 7 percent. That is why a Series 1950 star is worth $170 or more while a 1950E star from most districts is worth much less.

Check the last character of the serial number on both sides of the note. A star there means the note replaced a misprinted sheet. Our star note guide explains how they were used and why some runs are scarce.

The letter I in the seal means Minneapolis, and it is usually among the smallest printings of any series. On the 1950 fives that shows up all through Greysheet's list. Regular 1950B, 1950C and 1950D Minneapolis notes run $8 to $36, a little above the $5 to $24 of other districts. The Series 1950 Minneapolis star, at $350 to $550 and $725 in MS63, is the most valuable note in the whole 1950 five dollar run. The 1950A Minneapolis star follows at $200 to $250.

So if you are sorting a stack of old fives, pull every I note aside before anything else. Then check the series and look for a star. It takes ten seconds per note and it is where nearly all the value in a pile of 1950s fives turns out to be.

The 1950 redesign made the Treasury seal and the gray FIVE smaller, added WASHINGTON, D.C. between the seal and the serial number, and put spikes around the black Federal Reserve seal. Wikipedia's history of the bill describes the change. A 1934 $5 has a bigger seal and no WASHINGTON, D.C. line in that spot.

The back tells 1950 apart from 1963: the Lincoln Memorial on a 1950 series note has no IN GOD WE TRUST above it. The motto arrived on the $5 with Series 1963.

If your $5 has a red seal, it is a United States Note, not a Federal Reserve Note, and it has its own price guide. Start with the 1953 $5 red seal page.

You do not need a loupe to place a note in the right price band. Hold it flat under a lamp and tilt it until the light rakes across the surface. Folds and creases show up as lines. Count them.

No lines at all, sharp corners and paper that still crackles: uncirculated, the top of every range on this page. One light fold, often through the center: about uncirculated, still a solid premium. Several folds but crisp paper: very fine or extremely fine, a few dollars over the bottom of the range. Soft, limp paper with rounded corners and heavy creases: fine or lower, which on a common series means face value plus a little.

Stains, tears, pinholes and writing knock a note down further. The Warren Commission note in our photo is historically interesting, but as a collectible 1950C $5 its handwriting and center tear would make it a low grade note. Our banknote grading scale has the full definitions.

A circulated 1950 to 1950D note without a star is a keepsake. Spend it or keep it; no dealer will pay meaningfully more than face plus a few dollars.

A 1950E Chicago note, a Minneapolis (I) note in nice condition, or any Series 1950 star is worth separating and protecting in a Mylar sleeve. For the stars, grading pays off in the uncirculated range. Read how to grade a banknote before you send anything off.