$50 Star Notes
34 print runs · series 2001–2021 · 18 short
The $50 is the smallest star program in the record after the $2: 34 runs since October 2002, and the only denomination whose notes were not issued by all twelve Federal Reserve Banks.
What the print record holds for $50 star notes
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing has reported 34 $50 star note runs since October 2002, across eight series. Eighteen were short runs of 640,000 notes or fewer. The smallest was 64,000 notes.
- Print runs
- 34
- Short runs
- 18
- Smallest run
- 64,000
- Largest run
- 3,200,000
- Notes printed
- 49,600,000
- Reported
- October 2002 – November 2025
Fewer districts, fewer runs, and a floor of 64,000 notes.
The shortest $50 star runs on record
| Notes printed | Series | Prefix | Federal Reserve Bank | Serial range | Reported |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 64,000 | 2004A | GB | New York | 1–64,000 | February 2007 |
| 160,000 | 2017A | PB | New York | 1–160,000 | May 2020 |
| 320,000 | 2001 | CB | New York | 1–320,000 | October 2002 |
| 320,000 | 2021 | QB | New York | 1–320,000 | October 2024 |
| 320,000 | 2021 | QB | New York | 6,400,001–6,720,000 | November 2025 |
| 512,000 | 2006 | IG | Chicago | 1–512,000 | June 2009 |
| 640,000 | 2001 | CE | Richmond | 1–640,000 | December 2003 |
| 640,000 | 2004 | EG | Chicago | 3,200,001–3,840,000 | April 2004 |
No dollar figure here, and that is deliberate. Run size tells you how many notes exist. What a note is worth depends on its condition, and two notes from the same run can be an order of magnitude apart. Anyone who quotes you a price from a serial number alone is guessing. Use these numbers to know what you have, then have it graded before you believe a figure.
Series by series
| Series | Runs | Short runs | Smallest run | Notes printed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 2 | 2 | 320,000 | 960,000 |
| 2004 | 5 | 2 | 640,000 | 8,480,000 |
| 2004A | 2 | 1 | 64,000 | 2,624,000 |
| 2006 | 2 | 2 | 512,000 | 1,152,000 |
| 2009 | 3 | 2 | 640,000 | 4,480,000 |
| 2013 | 5 | 2 | 640,000 | 7,936,000 |
| 2017A | 10 | 3 | 160,000 | 20,000,000 |
| 2021 | 5 | 4 | 320,000 | 3,968,000 |
Which Federal Reserve Bank issued them
| District | Federal Reserve Bank | Runs | Short runs | Smallest run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | New York | 10 | 6 | 64,000 |
| 7 | Chicago | 6 | 3 | 512,000 |
| 1 | Boston | 5 | 4 | 640,000 |
| 5 | Richmond | 5 | 2 | 640,000 |
| 11 | Dallas | 3 | 2 | 640,000 |
| 4 | Cleveland | 2 | 0 | 3,200,000 |
| 9 | Minneapolis | 2 | 0 | 3,200,000 |
| 6 | Atlanta | 1 | 1 | 640,000 |
The district letter in your serial number is the bank that issued the note, not the city it was printed in. Only 8 of the twelve districts appear in the $50 star record.
How to read a run size
A star run of more than 640,000 notes is ordinary. At 640,000 or fewer the note starts to be scarce, and the further below, the scarcer. On the $50 the record breaks down like this:
- 16 ordinary runs (more than 640,000 notes)
- 16 short runs (640,000 down to 160,001)
- 1 very short runs (160,000 down to 100,001)
- 1 exceptional runs (100,000 or fewer)
The single most common $50 star run size is 640,000 notes, which the BEP has reported 12 times. That figure sits exactly on the 640,000-note line collectors use, so it counts as a short run and is at the same time the most ordinary thing a $50 star note can be. On this denomination “short” does not mean “unusual”.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page is counted from the Monthly Production Reports of the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing — 284 reports covering October 2002 to May 2026, parsed into 684 rows and deduplicated to 678 star note runs, of which 34 are $50. Works of the US federal government carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. §105. Nothing here comes from a dealer’s price list. The parsing, the checks and the known gaps are written up in the methodology.
Records start in October 2002. A $50 star note older than that cannot be looked up here — that is a gap in the public record, not a fault in your note.
Other denominations: $1 · $2 · $5 · $10 · $20 · $100. Each one has its own run table and its own lookup.
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