1969 $10 Bill Value

Look at the last character of the serial number. On a regular note it is a letter. On a replacement note it is a star. If it is a letter, the rest of this page will not change your answer much: your note is an $11 to $60 note depending on condition. Skip to the condition section.

If it is a star, keep going. Star prices on the 1969 tens run from $19 to $450, and the series letter and district decide where yours lands.

The series is printed right of Hamilton's portrait. The printage and signatures below come from uspapermoney.info. Notice how small the 1969B star run is next to the others.

Series 1969B stars were printed for only seven districts, per uspapermoney.info: New York (1,760,000), Richmond (640,000), Atlanta (640,000), Chicago (864,000), St. Louis (1,280,000), Kansas City (640,000) and San Francisco (1,120,000). Greysheet prices all seven, and the three smallest runs carry the highest ceilings.

The star share fell series by series. Series 1969 had 35,520,000 stars against 842,720,000 regular notes, about 4.2 percent. 1969A had 14,112,000 against 410,080,000, about 3.4 percent. 1969B had 6,944,000 against 210,880,000, about 3.3 percent. 1969C had 18,080,000 against 657,120,000, about 2.8 percent.

The share is not what decides price, though. Absolute numbers per district are, which is why the 640,000 note runs of 1969B carry the highest ranges while the Series 1969 stars, millions per district, stay in the $22 to $70 band.

The 1969, 1969A and 1969C stars are worth a premium, just a smaller one. Series 1969 stars list at $22 to $52 for most districts, with Richmond to $63, St. Louis to $70, and Minneapolis and Kansas City at $28 to $60.

Series 1969A stars run higher in a few districts: Atlanta $37 to $112, Richmond $37 to $100, Dallas $34 to $75, St. Louis $32 to $67. There are no 1969A stars from Minneapolis or Kansas City in the printing records, and Greysheet lists none either. Series 1969C stars run $30 to $56 for most districts and up to $93 for Boston, Minneapolis, Kansas City and Dallas.

Every 1969 ten says 1969, but the printing records at uspapermoney.info show deliveries running for more than five years. Series 1969 tens went to the Federal Reserve from August 1969 to October 1971, 1969A from July 1971 to April 1973, 1969B from June 1972 to September 1973, and 1969C from November 1972 to December 1974.

Those windows overlap. For several months in 1972 and 1973, three different series were coming off the presses. That is why the series letter, not the year, tells you which note you have. It is also why 1969B is short: it was squeezed between 1969A and 1969C.

Series 1969 is where the ten picked up the new Treasury seal. Wikipedia's history of the bill puts it plainly: the $10 began using the new seal with wording in English that says THE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY. Earlier tens have a Latin legend around the seal.

That makes dating easy. Latin seal: Series 1963A or earlier. English seal and no security strip: 1969 through the late 1980s. A plastic strip on the left side and microprinting around the portrait: Series 1990 or later, when the first modern anti-counterfeiting features arrived.

On the $20 and the $5, Series 1969B regular notes are scarce enough that Greysheet prices them well above the other series. On the ten it does not. The 1969B ten was printed in 210,880,000 regular notes, more than the 151,360,000 of the 1969B twenty and the 176,160,000 of the 1969B five, and every district got some. Greysheet lists all of them at the same $11 to $60 as any other 1969 ten.

The same goes for stars from the larger runs. A 1969 New York star, from a series with 35.5 million stars in total, lists at $22 to $52. That is a nice premium on a $10 note, but it is not a rarity, and it should not be priced like one.

So if you have a 1969B ten without a star, it is a common note. If you have a 1969B twenty or five, it is not. Check the denomination before you get excited about the series letter.

With every regular 1969 ten sharing the same $11 to $60 range, condition is the only variable. Tilt the note under a lamp and look for fold lines. A note with none, with square corners and stiff paper, is the $40 to $60 end. One with a few folds but crisp paper is in the middle. A soft, well carried note is an $11 note, which is barely more than face.

Stains, tears, pinholes and writing take a note lower. So does trimming, which some people do to tidy worn edges. Our grading scale guide has the definitions dealers use.

The 1969 ten sits between the 1950 $10, whose 1950E stars are the key notes of that run, and the 1985 $10, the last ten before the security strip. If you have the 1969 $20 too, the 1969 $20 page is worth reading: on that denomination the 1969B regular notes are scarce, not only the stars.

A regular 1969 ten is best kept, spent, or sold in a group with other notes. For stars, eBay works for the $20 to $60 range because buyers search by series and district. For a 1969B star from Richmond, Kansas City or Atlanta in crisp condition, check auction archives first and consider grading. Our selling guide and star note guide cover the details.