You have some twenty dollar bills that were circulated in 1998 and called back in because they said 1996 series How do you find out if they have any value?

Answer 1

That's an urban legend and is quite false. There has never been a recall of $20 bills.

In any case, the dates on U.S. bills are NOT the dates they were printed, strange as that may seem. The date says "Series" because all bills printed in a given series have the same date regardless of the actual year.

Just what defines a "series" has changed over the years, but today it generally is related to the particular Treasury Secretary who was in office when the bills were printed. For example, Henry Paulson was appointed as Treasury Secretary in 2006 so all bills with his signature are Series 2006, even if they were printed up to January 20, 2009 when he left office. When the new bills for President Obama's Secretary are printed they will be Series 2009.

The first bill in a series just has the date. When a new Treasurer (a subsidiary position to the Secretary) is appointed but the same Secretary remains in office, a small letter is added next to the date. That's why you may see bills dated 2004, or 2004A.

One of the most extreme cases of "date slip" occurred on 1935-series $1 bills. At that time the practice was to change the series date only when a bill was redesigned; the same design was used on bills printed all the way up to mid-1965 so for 30 years those bills were all dated 1935 and series letters went up to H!