***Star Note 1953A $5 Blue Seal Silver Certificate Grades Gem CU. Signatures Priest/Anderson. Five dollar silver certificates were first issued in 1886. The series ended in 1953 with the Lincoln blue seals. Some $5 silver certificates are very popular and valuable. Small size five dollar silver certificates were issued for 1934, 1934A, 1934B, 1934C, and 1934D. The 1953 $5 silver certificate looks very similar to the earlier 1934 issues except that the “5” on the left hand side of the note is in blue, and the seal on the right hand side is smaller. When notes are discovered that have been printed incorrectly (such as having the serial numbers upside down, etc.) the misprinted "error notes" are replaced with star notes because no two bills within a certain series can be produced with the same serial number. They are used to maintain a correct count of notes in a serial number run. By their nature, star notes are more scarce than notes with standard serial numbers and as such are widely collected by numismatists. Some of the highest prices paid for modern (post-1928) U.S. banknotes have been for star notes.