Need Help with a $10 Type Set
Choppy
Posts: 37 ✭✭
I just finished disposing of my late father's estate, so I decided to talk with my adult daughter about some of the valuable things that I own and where she might be able to sell them for a good price when I'm gone.
I showed her some National Banknotes that I own, and she thought that it was wild that a person might be walking around with a wallet full of bills from a bunch of different banks. How did folks deal with being handed banknotes from out of state banks? Did they fall for "Choppy's National Bank" 
scams? I guessed that folks had to be super careful back then, and, anyway, a $10 bill in 1935 had the purchasing power of $240 now, so it's unlikely that most working folks handled a lot of $10 bills day-to-day.
But wait, I told her, there's more! I then showed her a $10 gold certificate, a $10 silver certificate, and a $10 Federal Reserve Banknote. Again, she asked, how did people and businesses process all of these different types of bills?
Her questions inspired me to assemble a new type set. What if a person, beginning in the early 1930s, occasionally stashed a small size $10 bill in a piggy bank and then, around 1942, cracked open that piggy bank to buy war bonds. Question: How many different types of $10 bills might the person encounter in that stash?
So, here is my list of small type $10 bills issued between about 1928 and 1942. (Yeah, finding a North Africa note in the stash seems a little unrealistic, but it could happen.) What types am I missing?
And, yes, I like sawbucks.
$10 Series 1928 Gold Certificate
$10 Series 1928 Federal Reserve Note
$10 Series 1929 National Bank Note
$10 Series 1929 Federal Reserve Bank Note
$10 Series 1934 Federal Reserve Note
$10 Series 1934 Federal Reserve Note - Hawaii Overprint
$10 Series 1934 Silver Certificate
$10 Series 1934 Silver Certificate - Yellow Seal North Africa
UPDATE 11/19/2025
$10 Series 1928 Gold Certificate
$10 Series 1928 Federal Reserve Note - Number for FR District
$10 Series 1928 Federal Reserve Note - Letter for FR District
$10 Series 1929 National Bank Note - Type 1
$10 Series 1929 National Bank Note - Type 2
$10 Series 1929 Federal Reserve Bank Note
$10 Series 1933 Silver Certificate (Rare)
$10 Series 1934 Federal Reserve Note - Light Green Seal
$10 Series 1934 Federal Reserve Note - Dark Green Seal
$10 Series 1934 Federal Reserve Note - Hawaii Overprint
$10 Series 1934 Silver Certificate
$10 Series 1934 Silver Certificate - Yellow Seal North Africa
Comments
I like the $10 also. I would add the different green seal colors of the FRN notes, the light/lime green vs dark green colors. There are two different types of the NBN notes, with the serial numbers arranged differently, you could count that as 2 different if you want.
Ah yes, the Type 1 and 2 NBNs. I had forgotten about them.
I'll look into the lime green vs dark green seal color FRNs. Are each of those an intentional "type", like the yellow seal North Africa notes, or was one of them more of a printing/ink issue? Time to hit the books...
Thanks for the input!
A type set to be made even better with t1 & t2's 👍
I think a $10 bill type set is a good idea.
You could consider seeking a 1929 $10 note from each state/territory. Might be a tad overwhelming but it could be a quite a challenge. I like the idea of a type set
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
I have never heard any reason for the change, but the color of the green seal did change significantly. It went from a light/lime green color (the more expensive one) to a dark/blue green color, with transitional colors in between. All of these colors are 'green' but they are not the same. There are collector attempts to track when the colors change, but I have never heard of any official reason why this happened. I suspect it was cost, but who knows.
You could also add the 1933 silver certificate, which did circulate a very little.
I have thought about trying to put together a motley crew of $10 small nationals. Meaning, look for what acceptable notes sell for cheap. So probably common banks, that had seen plenty of commerce, but still looked decent, and accumulate whatever comes up in that search. So no banks in particular, just decent but inexpensive $10s. But I haven't got to it yet.
I had no idea the 1933 silver certificate existed. I just went to Ebay, did a search, and found one graded example. $28,999! I guess I won't be adding one of those to my collection after all.
Yeah, it'd be especially cool if one could choose examples for each state whose bank or city names fit a theme. Maybe Native American town names, or banks with "commerce" in the name, or somesuch.
Thank you all for your help! It turns out that my initial list was way too short. I have just added an update.