Inverted Back Silver Certificate Error, 1935A, Fr.1608, W-A Block No Motto $1, Very Choice CU, PMG Certified, PMG-64.

Common nomenclature identifies this error as an "Inverted Back" although, technically, it is an "Inverted Front". The reason being that the back impression is the first of the three printing passes. The error occurs when the sheet being printed is removed from the press prior to the second printing (the front) and reinserted in the wrong direction so that the front, or "face", printing is upside down relative to the other side, or "back". This can happen when an entire stack of sheets is reinserted in a reverse manner during the usual printing process, or when a single sheet removed for inspection is reinserted in the wrong direction. Either way, what results, if not caught, is a error collector's dream note.

The production of this type of error results in a situation that may be considered harder to detect by the BEP inspectors as each side of the sheet otherwise looks "normal". Nonetheless, this error category is still pretty scarce, especially in the earlier issues such as the No Motto Silver Certificates. Also especially rare are early notes that have been preserved in any degree of Uncirculated condition, such as this vChCU example. It was not until the 1976-78 period that a number of FRNs with this error escaped from the BEP and noticed by the public early on.

The number of Inverted Back errors that escaped detection and were released to circulation is not known; although the total number issued can be safely assumed to not be very large. As with the difficulty of detection at the time of printing, it seems obvious that this error was easily overlooked when passing through the normal channels of commerce. The result is that the majority of early Silver Certificates to become available to collectors are well circulated; average circulated inverts more or less mirror the degree of use associated with normal notes of the same era. Near-Gem notes such as this one are really quite rare and, in our opinion, undervalued in the market. This is accentuated by those collectors interested in the error by blocks. We know of only one other CU note in this Series of the W-A block.