1928D $2 Legal Tender

D-A Block Mules

Micro-size face plate serial numbers were used for the 1928, 1928A,1928B, and 1928C series (up to FP #181) $2 Legal Tender along with their corresponding backs with micro-size plate serial numbers (BP #288 and lower). With the 1928D series, there was a change to a macro-size plate serial number for the face (FPs #182-401). The BEP had already been making macro backs beginning with back plate 289 in January 1938. Initial use of those backs followed the next year on August 22, 1939. The 1928C series Mules were created when a 1928C face plate (micro-size) was mated to a sheet printed with a newer macro-size BP. The opposite is true for 1928D series Mules, in which a 1928D face plate (macro-size) was mated to a sheet printed with an older micro-sized BP.

The first $2 mules produced were 1928D micro back mules in mid-1939, followed by 1928C macro back mules later that year. B-A block serials were current when 1928D faces came into service and the lowest reported 1928D mule has serial B87580373A. Late 1939 and early 1940 was the peak of $2 mule production. Between August 1939 and February 1940, all four plate varieties were in use: micro and macro backs, and 1928C and 1928D faces. Numbering with C-A block serials commenced in 1940, creating two more block varieties of $2 mules. The 1928D B-A block Mules are less common, although not scarce, while the 1928D C-A block Mules are very common.

1928D $2 LT Star B-A Block Mule - Macro FP #193, Micro BP #259

1928D $2 LT Star C-A Block Mule - Macro FP #216, Micro BP #281

Gradually, the use of plate types diminished. From 1938-40, the BEP pressed into service 30 macro backs. In that time, the use of micro back plates began to dwindle as those plates were pulled and canceled. The BEP used 28 micro backs in 1940, 14 in 1941, and only three in 1942. None were used after August 1942.

The BEP stopped using 1928C faces in February 1940. Series of 1928D faces remained in production until August 1944 and in service until March 1946. Muled 1928D sheets remained in the numbering pipeline for a few months after August 1942. Typically, those stocks were consumed quickly as they proceeded through the numbering division. The previous highest serial on a 1928D mule was C55466648A, numbered later that year.

This 1928D D-A mule had a different fate. Like all other $2 mules, the note is from a sheet printed from 1938-42. Back 275 was the final $2 micro back plate dropped from press, on August 12, 1942. Face 245 was used for three press runs from November 1941 until November 1942. Sometime in that year, sheets from back 275 were mated with face plate 245 to create 1928D macro 245/micro 275 mule sheets.

Unlike other $2 mules, the D-A mule was numbered in 1944 instead of being finished in 1942 with the last stocks of $2 mule sheets. It remained in storage with other $2 sheets for the next two years until finally sent to the numbering division. It received serial number D084230054A sometime late in 1944. The first serial delivered that year was C80512001A, and the last, D11052001A.

The $2 1928D D-A mule, pictured below, is unique for the variety and recently sold at a public auction for $4,560.

Written by Jamie Yakes