He felt his heart pounding and his blood pressure rising as he looked at the bill. This flat piece of paper looked harmless, but it sent him on a rollercoaster spin of emotions. It arrived in the mail, and it was a rather shocking surprise. Just about everyone has felt this kind of fear at some point in their lives. Then he realized he had to check his wallet.
Do you ever get the feeling that you forgot to pay for something? Maybe it was a hospital bill, a traffic ticket, or the mortgage. Everyone has panicked at the thought of having forgotten to pay a bill at one point or another. But it turns out that your ticket out of paying it off was probably in your wallet this entire time. But you probably weren’t looking in the right place.
Collectors are always picking up things that a lot of us consider worthless like nail clippings, Troll Dolls, and even Coca-Cola cans. In fact, there’s a good chance that you have a fortune in your home and you don’t even know it. But the latest fad in the collectors’ world is an item that most of us have with us when we walk out of the house.
We’re all familiar with anecdotes like rags to riches or Cash-In-The-Attic, and wondered if we underestimated the value of something we own. Maybe there’s a rare item hidden somewhere in our basement or in our garage. Unfortunately, we’d have to dig through our junk for days to find this potential item. Then we’d need to have it appraised, which sounds like a lot of unnecessary work.
Don’t waste your time rummaging through your old junk. The most expensive item you own might be in your pocket right now. We use it all the time. It’s dirty, but we love it. We trade it. We get it back. And now, collectors want it badly. But these people aren’t collecting it because of its monetary value. They want it because of a certain numeral sequence.
Have you completed a set of sequences so perfectly that it left you oddly satisfied? Many describe the sensation as a feeling of “completeness.” That feeling is caused by the pleasure center in the brain, which collectors often experience. But the right “eye” is important in order to pick out valuable items. Of course, a certain level of expertise is also required, but we’ll get back to that in a second.
Collectors are willing and able to pay tons of money for one of the most common items on the planet. It’s estimated that 38 million of these items are produced every day, and everyone has held one in their hand at some point in their lives. But collectors aren’t collecting these items for sentimental or historical purposes. Their reasoning is totally arbitrary.
Look in your wallet or purse. Have you found it yet? It’s something you see every day. Maybe it’s a worn-out piece of leather or a famous designer’s insignia. Actually, it’s neither of those things, but don’t worry. People from all walks of life could be the ultimate winner! Think of it as a jackpot that you never even bet on. Maybe it’s a winning lottery ticket.
Have you ever gotten up close and personal with a dollar bill? Probably not. After all, it’ just a piece of paper. But guess what? It could be worth thousands. And, unlike an antique or other rare item, you don’t need to be an expert to be able to identify what’s in a dollar bill. Just look in the top left-hand corner.
Have you ever noticed the serial numbers on a dollar bill? Most folks wouldn’t bother to look, but to some, the numbers are mystifying. In fact, to collectors, they are very important. So much so, that they’re willing to cough up thousands of dollars for bills with specific numerical sequences printed on them.
Do you know which serial number sequences are the most popular? According to one website, you can buy a $1 bill for $2,500 if the serial number is 00000002! And that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg in this serial number collection fad. But keep in mind that the value of the bill is higher for other serial numbers too.
$1 bills with low numeral sequences like 00000001 to 00000100 are in high demand, but palindromes like 23599532 are popular too. Then there are “Solids,” with repeated numbers like 33333333 that are worth $13,000. That makes the value 13,000 times higher than the bill’s original worth. And these are just a couple of examples of these “fancy” serial numbers.
“Radar repeaters,” which are numbers in a Fibonacci sequence, like 01111110, 10000001, or 80000008, are very popular among collectors. So are “double quads”, like 11110000. Collectors find comfort in rows of 0s, so they’ll pay insane amounts of money to acquire these bills. Now you know what to look for, but there are even more complex sequences out there…
The rarest sequence in a $1 bill contains a pi sequence in the serial number, like 31415927. But the average person probably won’t even notice these sequences, which makes the value of these bills even higher. Collectors are happy to pay $25,000 for these unique bills with the mathematical pi sequences printed on the paper.
Now that you know the true value of certain $1 bills, you’ll never look at money quite the same way. So, the next time you find yourself struggling to make ends meet, take out your wallet, and check out the 8-digit serial number of the top let corner of all of your $1 bills. You might have a hidden fortune!