You never know what you'll discover when you start cleaning out old furniture, but this homeowner certainly did not expect to find a $500 bill from almost 100 years ago.
Reddit user u/CobblerSoft2147 was going through an old home he recently purchased in Phoenix, Arizona, when he made the shocking discovery. While rummaging the drawers of a desk left behind, he might have expected to come across a few extra coins stashed away many years ago.
But what he found was worth far more than just that.
The 32-year-old told Newsweek that, as he cleaned out the desk, he looked through each drawer. Hidden away at the "back of the drawer" was this $500 star note with a very low serial number.
A star note is a replacement banknote printed to replace a faulty one. It is identified by the small star to the right of the serial number. The note found by u/CobblerSoft2147 has a serial number of L00003079, with a small green star.
"I believe it's from 1932, as I did a little bit of research on it," he said. "It's a very unusual note because not only is it a star note, but the serial number is also really low. I'm not exactly sure what it's actually worth, but the people on Reddit have guessed anywhere between $1,000 and $10,000 so far."
The Redditor shared pictures of the banknote in a post on November 11, and it went viral with over 3,600 votes and 300 comments at the time of writing. Many social media users hailed the impressive discovery, while others shared their estimates for its worth.
Once he knows the actual value of this banknote, which could be almost a century old, he plans to sell it.
After seeing other Reddit posts about rare bank notes, u/CobblerSoft2147 felt compelled to share his own recent discovery online. However, he certainly wasn't expecting the post to go viral or generate quite this much attention.
"I'd seen other people post about notes and coins they found on Reddit, and there's already been a lot of likes and comments on this post now, too," he told Newsweek.
Among the hundreds of comments on the Reddit post, there was plenty of speculation about the note's value, and some commenters revealed their discoveries—which were much less fortunate than this one.
One Reddit user wrote: "Nice! Most I'm seeing in sold listings are minimum $1300 and some up to 5k+."
Another Redditor commented: "I think you should get this graded. It may fetch higher value at an auction because it looks to be in good condition."
"Not the best condition, but a star note $500, jackpot," said one commenter.
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