How the rarity score works
The score comes from the size of the Bureau run that contains the serial. It is not a price and it is not a grade.
A monthly print run
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing publishes how many notes it printed, by month, denomination, series, and serial block. StarNote Atlas uses those monthly figures. A run here is the block of serials reported for one of those months, printed at Fort Worth or Washington, D.C. A few star blocks were printed only for uncut sheets and never appear in those monthly reports. Those blocks are listed with a size and a facility, and without a month.
Tables on this site cover August 1974 through August 2026. The lookup matches a Federal Reserve star serial to the block that contains it, then reads the number of notes in that block. A serial that the reports list in more than one run, such as the 2013 New York duplicates, shows each run instead of picking one.
How the number becomes a score
The score uses only that run size.
| Run size | Score | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 320,000 or fewer | 100 | Ultra rare |
| 1,280,000 or fewer | 75 | Very rare |
| 3,200,000 or fewer | 50 | Scarce |
| 9,600,000 or fewer | 25 | Common |
| Larger | 5 | Abundant |
Rarity score is based on run size. Note that final value depends on multiple factors beyond rarity alone. The label is a shorthand for the size of the printing, so a scarce run and a common run can sit in the same series. The score does not go up because a note looks crisp, and it does not go down because the note circulated.
What the score leaves out
Grade, centering, and ink are not in the number. Neither is demand. A low score can still be a note nobody is looking for, and a high score can still be a note that is hard to find in uncirculated condition. The passport records condition separately, as the collector entered it.
The district and the series still matter for finding the right block. The same eight digits can fall in different runs once the prefix, denomination, and series change. That is why Star note lookup asks for all three before it scores a serial.
Fort Worth and Washington, D.C. both print notes, and the monthly report names the facility when it has one. Two blocks with the same prefix can still be different months. The lookup shows the month and the facility next to the score so the block is identifiable.
When there is no match
No row in the table does not mean the note is not a star. The monthly reports used here start in 1974, and they cover Federal Reserve star production. A Silver Certificate star, a red-seal star, or a very recent block that is not in the tables yet can still be a replacement note.
For those, the star itself is the fact to record. Fancy patterns, which are about the digits rather than the print run, are a different check. A serial with no run can still be a radar, a ladder, or a solid.