1934 $10 North Africa

Mules

With the onset of the United State's involvement in WWII, the BEP began printing Emergency Issues for both the European and Pacific Theaters. The notes to be used in the North Africa and Italy regions were regular $1, $5, and $10 Silver Certificates but had a yellow Treasury Seal instead of blue. These are commonly referred to as North Africa notes. With the exception of a small run of 660,000 blue seal notes in early 1943, all of the $10 Silver Certificates printed from 1942 to 1944 were printed with yellow seals for use in the war. During those years the BEP printed $10 Silver Certificates in both the high end of the A-A block and the lower end of the B-A block.

A majority of the $10 North Africa yellow seals were on 1934A series sheets, as pictued above, but not all. In July 1942, two 1934 series face plates (125 & 126) were sent to a final press run, which was in the first few months of yellow seal production. In addition, stockpiles of 1934 series sheets printed in 1940 from five face plates (116, 123, 125, 126, & 127) were also used and intermixed with 1934A series sheets. This created 1934 series North Africa yellow seals alongside 1934A series yellow seals. Prior to 1940, all micro back plates (BPs) had been canceled, thus only sheets printed from newer macro BPs were mated with the 1934 and 1934A series yellow seals, resulting in only 1934 series Mules (micro FP, macro BP) and 1934A Non-Mules (macro FP, macro BP) being printed (no 1934 Non-Mule & 1934A Mule yellow seals are known).

A majority of $10 1934 series yellow seal Mules were serial numbered within the A-A block in 1942, but some 1934 series sheets were left in stock and not used until the Treasury Department ordered 6,000,000 $10 yellow seals in April 1943. Subsequently, additional stockpiled 1934 series sheets were used alongside 1934A series sheets and serial numbered in the B-A block (B01 564 001A - B07 564 000A). As a result, 1934 series yellow seal B-A block Mules were created. Currently, 1934 series yellow seal Mules are only known to exist from the very end of that range: B07 560 5xxA, B07 560 7xxA, and B07 562 xxxA. 1934 series yellow seal Mules from both the A-A and B-A blocks are scarce and highly sought after by collectors. These scarce yellow seals command a significant premium over 1934A series yellow seals, which are very common.