1934 $10 Silver Certificates

The 1934 $10 Silver Certificates were printed from 1934 to 1953 and encompassed five different series, 1934 to 1934D, and offered a few tougher varieties and types to collect. Some of these tougher varieties include minuscule printings of regular Mules in unexpected blocks (1934 Series B-A block Mules), scarce WWII Emergency Issue Mules, Mules where only four backplates were used (1934A), two different LFPs (Late-Finished Plates) - #86 & #87, a low production series (1934B - 337,740 printed), and a subtle design modification.

There were no major design changes during the course of the 1934 series, but there were a few different subtle design modifications. The 1934 & 1934A series included a WWII Emergency Issue, in which the Treasury seal color was changed from blue to yellow, and was used in North Africa and Italy during WWII. Aside from the change to the seal color, the notes were identical to the regular Silver Certificates. More information on North Africa Emergency Issues.

The 1934D series saw a slight change to the Wide back plate design, which was used on all $10 small-size notes to that point. The Narrow design, where the back border is squeezed into the design, was added towards the end of 1934D production and continued to be used into the 1953 series.

Wide

(BP #1389 & lower)

Narrow

(BP #1390-1456)

This series also had Mule varieties printed in two different series, 1934 & 1934A. A "Mule" is created when a note is printed with an older micro-sized plate serial number on one side and a macro-sized plate serial number on the other. A Mule is not specific to Silver Certificates or the $10 denomination... any note with a macro-sized plate number (newer) on one side and a micro-sized plate number (older) on the other creates a Mule.

The 1934 series was printed with micro-size face plate numbers (FP #1-127) along with their corresponding backs with micro-size plate numbers (BP #584 and lower). With the 1934A series, there was a change to a macro-size plate number for the face (FP #129-210) and had already started producing macro-size plate number back plates (BP #585 and higher). The 1934 series Mules are created when a 1934 face plate (micro-size) was mated to a sheet printed with a newer macro-size BP. And the opposite is true for 1934A series Mules, in which a 1934A face plate (macro-size) was mated to a sheet printed with an older micro-sized BP.