Bananas.org - $20 bill with Del Monte #4011 banana sticker

Thought this was very appropriate :)

Collectors Go Bananas for Flawed $20 Bill
By MATT JOYCET, AP

DALLAS (Jan. 6) - An ordinary fruit sticker that mysteriously ended up on a $20 bill could spur collectors to bid up to 1,000 times the bill's face value at an auction Friday.

"I've collected for probably seven years now, and nothing comes close to the way people react to it -- their eyes pop out," said Daniel Wishnatsky of the "banana note." He is auctioning the bill Friday.

The "banana note" bears a bright red, green and yellow Del Monte sticker next to Andrew Jackson's portrait. The flawed bill originated at a U.S. Treasury Department printing facility in Fort Worth, but just how the fruit tag found its way onto the greenback is unknown.

"I've collected for probably seven years now and nothing comes close to the way people react to it -- their eyes pop out," said Daniel Wishnatsky, a Phoenix currency collector who paid $10,100 for the $20 bill in a May 2003 eBay auction.

Heritage Galleries and Auctioneers of Dallas is auctioning the bill for Wishnatsky on Friday in Orlando, Fla. The auction company and Wishnatsky, a member of the Society of Paper Money Collectors, think the bill could fetch two to three times his investment.

Jason Bradford, president of PCGS Currency in Newport Beach, Calif., authenticated for the auction company that the error was genuine and not faked outside the printing plant.

Currency goes through three printing stages, he said: first the back is printed, then the face, and then the serial number and treasury seal are stamped on.

In the case of the banana note, the seal and the serial number are both printed on top of the Del Monte sticker, meaning the fruit tag must have found its way onto the bill midway through the process, he said.

The note is all the more rare because the Bureau of Printing and Engraving diligently inspects and destroys flawed currency before it escapes the plant, Bradford said.

He said there's no way to know whether a mischievous printer might have placed the sticker intentionally.

How the sticker ended up on the $20 bill is also a mystery to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, which investigated the note's history after the misprint surfaced but couldn't pinpoint a cause.

Spokeswoman Dawn Haley said the bureau has stepped up its inspection of currency with examination technology meant to catch foreign objects.

"We have very strict rules and guidelines on what can and can't be done," she said.

The note, which is in nearly perfect condition, has achieved celebrity status among numismatists, appearing on the covers of the Bank Note Reporter and Numismatic News.

As of Thursday, the auctioneers had already received an online bid of $14,000.

01-06-06 05:02 EST