3 ms·

Well the dj would presumably be searching within the theoretical space, since he wouldn't have access to the list of actual serial numbers printed.

aetherson 11y ago
Oh, maybe I didn't read it well enough. I thought he was pulling a bill out of his own pocket and then checking to see if anyone had a matching serial number. Does anyone know if the serial numbers are printed in order? I didn't see the answer in a very cursory web search. If they are, presumably it would be trivial for such a contest to avoid ever paying out -- just choose from the upper end of the SN range.
- Adapt 11y ago
  Perhaps I don't understand your thought process, but how could anyone have a matching bill that way? If the DJ was reading off a serial number, the only person to have a match would be the DJ himself, since they are unique. Afaik, the only time serial numbers get reused is when a bill is reissued because it is damaged or worn, in which case they would shred the old bill (also, the new bill would get a neat star next to its serial number).
  - Roedou 11y ago
    To begin, there are 32 bills on a sheet. In addition, they can re-run the process, but increment the letter portion of the serial each time. Depending on which parts of the serial number the DJ read off (just number, or number and letter), there could be up to 832 bills for a single serial number: http://onedollarbill.org/decoding.html http://onedollarbill.org/decoding.html
- nimblegorilla 11y ago
  The government prints about 2-5 trillion dollar bills each year. I'm pretty sure the entire range of serial numbers has been exhausted for $1: http://www.moneyfactory.gov/uscurrency/annualproductionfigures.html http://www.moneyfactory.gov/uscurrency/annualproductionfigur... http://onedollarbill.org/decoding.html http://onedollarbill.org/decoding.html
  - gertef 11y ago
    Billion, not Trillion! 1 Trillion is 150 singles for every human alive
    - nimblegorilla 11y ago
      Oops - I was off by an order of magnitude. Regardless - the treasury prints about 5% of the total serial numbers each year and according to the links I provided they already cycle through serial numbers.
      - thesteamboat 11y ago
        To be pedantic: you were off by three orders of magnitude. An order of magnitude is a 10x multiplicative factor.
- garethadams 11y ago
  > Does anyone know if the serial numbers are printed in order? That's generally what the "serial" part of "serial number" means. And why the smarter bank robbers ask for non-sequential bills, because new bills generally have consecutive serials which are simpler to trace

aetherson 11y ago

Oh, maybe I didn't read it well enough. I thought he was pulling a bill out of his own pocket and then checking to see if anyone had a matching serial number. Does anyone know if the serial numbers are printed in order? I didn't see the answer in a very cursory web search. If they are, presumably it would be trivial for such a contest to avoid ever paying out -- just choose from the upper end of the SN range.

Adapt 11y ago
Perhaps I don't understand your thought process, but how could anyone have a matching bill that way? If the DJ was reading off a serial number, the only person to have a match would be the DJ himself, since they are unique. Afaik, the only time serial numbers get reused is when a bill is reissued because it is damaged or worn, in which case they would shred the old bill (also, the new bill would get a neat star next to its serial number).
- Roedou 11y ago
  To begin, there are 32 bills on a sheet. In addition, they can re-run the process, but increment the letter portion of the serial each time. Depending on which parts of the serial number the DJ read off (just number, or number and letter), there could be up to 832 bills for a single serial number: http://onedollarbill.org/decoding.html http://onedollarbill.org/decoding.html
nimblegorilla 11y ago
The government prints about 2-5 trillion dollar bills each year. I'm pretty sure the entire range of serial numbers has been exhausted for $1: http://www.moneyfactory.gov/uscurrency/annualproductionfigures.html http://www.moneyfactory.gov/uscurrency/annualproductionfigur... http://onedollarbill.org/decoding.html http://onedollarbill.org/decoding.html
- gertef 11y ago
  Billion, not Trillion! 1 Trillion is 150 singles for every human alive
  - nimblegorilla 11y ago
    Oops - I was off by an order of magnitude. Regardless - the treasury prints about 5% of the total serial numbers each year and according to the links I provided they already cycle through serial numbers.
    - thesteamboat 11y ago
      To be pedantic: you were off by three orders of magnitude. An order of magnitude is a 10x multiplicative factor.
garethadams 11y ago
> Does anyone know if the serial numbers are printed in order? That's generally what the "serial" part of "serial number" means. And why the smarter bank robbers ask for non-sequential bills, because new bills generally have consecutive serials which are simpler to trace