No One Thought of Leading Zeros

As you all know, leading zeros were not used in the serial numbers on large size U.S. currency. This meant that the job of printing serials below 10,000,000 was a king-sized pain in the neck.

Large size type notes were printed in batches in serial number sequence. However, all the information available reveals that the notes were numbered from the highest to lowest serials within a batch once numbering presses were introduced in 1903.

Numbering was carried out on 4-subject Harris numbering, separating and collating machines after mid-1910. Beginning in 1918, the high-volume types were printed from 8-subject plates. The sheets were cut in half and the 4-subject halves fed through the Harris presses with the subjects numbered down the half sheets. The machines then separated the notes and collated them in serial number order.

The problem was that the numbering heads used to print the serial numbers had to be broken down so successive numbering wheels could be removed as the numbers decreased each