Fancy Serial Numbers Turn Dollar Bills Into Pricey Collectors' Items

Take a dollar bill out of your wallet. How much is it worth?

Say "a dollar," and chances are, you're absolutely right. But it's also possible that the humble Washington in your hands is worth much more than the number at the four corners of the bill.

Check the serial number.

The Boston Globe took a look inside the world of rare-bill collectors who are all about "fancy" serial numbers. It turns out those eight-digit numbers can be attractive in all sorts of ways to collectors, who will pay top dollar -- no pun intended -- for bills that meet certain criteria.

So if you'd like to take advantage of this weird hobby by selling to collectors, which number combinations should you look for? The article lists a few, including:

• Low numbers: 00000001 is most prized, but 00000002 to 00000100 are considered valuable.
• "Ladders": A sequential serial number, like 12345678 or 32109876.
• Palindromes: Say, 45288254 or 02100120. Collectors call them "radars."
• Repeaters: Blocks of repeating digits, like 85858585, are nice. A perfect sequence like 33333333 is even better, and known as a "solid."

But those aren't the only varieties that interest serial number connoisseurs. Dave Undis, who runs the site CoolSerialNumbers.com and has an extensive collection himself, details the various types of numbers that his fellow hobbyists will pay big bucks for.

Note that the actual denomination of the bill doesn't much matter to the collectors, since it's not like they're going to spend it. As such, it seems you'll get the most value in trade if you find the weird serial number on a lower denomination -- getting $200 for a dollar bill is a lot more profitable than the same amount for a hundred dollar bill. And $200 is hardly out of the question: The article cites a 77777777 $20-bill that sold for $528 in 2009, and other bills that sold in the thousands. Undis' site has many bills for sale in that range -- a hundred with the "solid" 11111111 going for $4,000, for example.

Speaking of Benjamins, collectors will be especially keen to get fancy numbers of the long-delayed new hundred-dollar bill. So the first time you get your hands on one of the redesigned hundreds, take a quick look at the serial number before you stick it in your wallet. The little green digits might not matter to you, but they matter to someone -- and that could mean a pretty penny for you.

 Matt Brownell is the consumer and retail reporter for DailyFinance. You can reach him at Matt.Brownell@teamaol.com, and follow him on Twitter at @Brownellorama.

Why you may know writer's name soon '2 BROKE GIRLS'

 
What does it take to get to the top -- without losing your center? Our “Making It Work” series profiles successful, dynamic women who are standouts in their fields, peeling back the "hows" of their work and their life, taking away lessons we can all apply to our own.
At 29, Molly McAleer, co-founder of the website HelloGiggles and executive story editor on the CBS sitcom "2 Broke Girls," has paid more than a few dues in the entertainment industry. Born in Lexington, Mass., McAleer moved to Los Angeles in 2006 fresh out of Boston College. She went through "the Gawker machine," as she put it, blogging in 2007 and 2008 at Defamer, Gawker Media's celebrity gossip site. For nine months, she literally moonlighted as an assistant night editor at the Style Network. ("My hours were 4pm to 7am. When you go to sleep when the birds are chirping, that really f**ks with your mind.") She signed a contract with MTV to star in her own variety show to be called "The Molls Half Hour Party Hour"... only to see the project fall through.
Then her luck began to change. Her friend, producer Sophia Rossi, had the idea of starting a website "like 'Funny or Die' for women." Soon after, Zoey Deschanel joined the project. Realizing they didn't actually have the staff or resources to create a video site, they focused on writing instead. It was while she was building HelloGiggles that McAleer began writing the TV pilot sample that landed her a gig on "2 Broke Girls," which begins its third season this fall.
Now that she can reliably pay her rent, McAleer, who lives in West Hollywood with her 6-year-old chihuahua, Wagandstuff, and describes herself as "deeply single," is figuring out exactly what success means, professionally and personally.
Did you become a writer by accident or design?
Writing online was completely an accident. My grandfather [John McAleer] was a quote unquote famous writer, so I was around writing my whole life. It was revered in my family, probably to the point that I felt like I couldn't do it. I didn't even realize that that was my passion for a long time. I'd been setting up little blogs on Angelfire and Homestead since I was 11 -- [but] that was always just my thing that I did. I have a crazy interest in the Internet, but more than that I have a crazy interest in making people aware of all of my thoughts.
I was told when I started at Defamer that I needed to have a blogging presence individually, so I started keeping a personal blog. When it was linked under my name on the masthead, one of my bosses approached me and was like, "Are you sure this is the blog that you want people to see? You're writing about your ex-boyfriends. Are you sure you want to be this personal?" And I looked at him and said, "What else am I supposed to write about?"
The TV job was [by] design. I just wasn't making enough money. I was 27, and there was never going to be a freelance blogging gig that was going to make it happen for me.


How does one go about scoring a job on a highly rated sitcom?
A big part of my life [in my mid-20s] was socializing, making sure that I knew who people were and people knew who I was. I got that sample into the hands of Whitney Cummings [one of the show's executive producers] because I knew her socially through a bunch of different people, [and] she had done my podcast.
Whitney knew exactly how broke I was. I was moving at one point and selling my desk. Whitney came and bought it for like $200 and saw the bachelor apartment [where] I was living in Koreatown. I didn't have a bed because I had just had bed bugs. So she knew firsthand. I think that really kind of got me the interview.
Then I was able to go and meet with [executive producer] Michael [Patrick King] and Whitney and explain that I was starting my own business [HelloGiggles] with these business partners and that I had been writing for all these years, sacrificing a lot of things with the hope that it would all work out someday. I think that Michael was drawn to that. That's kind of how everything happened.
What would you do if you weren't doing this?
I've always been fascinated by radio and wanted to own my own radio network, like Sirius or something. I would love to be able to program an entire radio network. I've also just really wanted to have my voice on the air.
Who is your role model?
For me it's always a toss-up between David Sedaris and Dolly Parton. That's always been the cross-section of human that I'm interested in. I really like voices that are true to themselves. For different reasons, those people represent that to me.
Do you have a mentor?
I've had a lot of people who were very kind to me, but no one's ever taught me how to do anything. I had to figure all that stuff out on my own. I always find that shocking when someone young comes to me and asks me to help because I don't think there's anything that can be helped. You just have to work it out.
What's the biggest lesson you've learned from your 20s?
Now that I look back on it, everything happened exactly the way it was supposed to. Around [age 25] I was offered a variety show on MTV. I thought that I had finally figured it out, that everything was clicking. I was being acknowledged the way I was supposed to be acknowledged. Then it completely fell apart. At the time I thought, "That really sucks. I don't get to perform. I don't get to be the star of my own television show." Thank god that didn't happen! I am so thankful that I had to stick around and pay some more dues for a couple of years before something really big worked out for me.
I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be right now. It all happened. I'm just so grateful for the job at "2 Broke Girls," every single day. If it had come any earlier, I don't know if I would have known to be so grateful for it. If it had come any later, I don't know if I would have been in L.A. anymore.

How do you define success?
I know that for a lot of people the answer would be "having my name in a certain publication" or "having my book be a New York Times bestseller." My idea of success is that I can pay my rent and take care of my health. That means a lot to me.
What advice would you give your 25-year-old self?
Stay home and read more, and you should work on breathing. I didn't breathe really at all until I was like 27 -- just enough to stay alive. I was in a constant frenzy. It makes sense that I was panicked -- I was in Los Angeles alone building something, [and] I didn't know what, and I didn't know where it would go. But I think I also caused myself a lot of unnecessary pain just because I wasn't really being very conscious or aware of anything.
What's your stress level now?
Pretty high, probably like an 8? Most of it's self-inflicted.
I see an acupuncturist, a therapist and an energy healer every week. I work very hard at dealing with it because I don't find anxiety to be this attractive quality it's made out to be all the time by my peers. I feel like I'm always hearing people talk about how anxious they are -- I think a lot of people equate [it] with adulthood or busyness or success. It's a gigantic waste of time, it shaves years off your life, and it conditions you to value all of the wrong things.
How do you recharge?
I go through long creative periods where I kind of lose myself and I need to check back in, [so then I have] a hibernation period. I just sit inside and I watch Lifetime movies and read and listen to public radio and get back to the things that make me feel human.
I try to consciously take these rebuilding periods so that I don't completely lose myself in the process of trying to make my dreams come true.
Do you keep your phone next to your bed?
I have a disgusting relationship with my phone. I don't keep it next to my bed, I keep it next to my face, [and] I don't just sleep with a cell phone, I sleep with two laptops and an ipad. So basically there's no room for a man in my life because my bed is full of electronics. It's not healthy. I don't recommend it. Michael Jackson's mom went to someplace in Arizona where they took her cell phone [away], and I've thought about doing that.
Do you get enough sleep?
Yeah, actually. I bank sleep. That is my thing. I can do 10 to 11 hours a night, easy.
Where do you want to be in five years?
I will be happy to have a couple more things that I'm proud of behind me creatively. It would be great if I met a great guy, but I don't know if that's a goal. I also would like to be able to have another dog, [and] I would like to continue to provide myself with the kind of lifestyle that I'm comfortable with, a semi-nice one.
It's not that I don't have expectations or dreams, it's just ... if I won an Emmy or something, it would be great, but I don't know if that would make me happier or more successful. Really all I can hope for is to have a little more continual comfort in knowing that I'm doing everything I can.
Is there a glass ceiling? Have you hit it?
I don't think about life like that. I definitely haven't hit it. I'm an executive story editor on "2 Broke Girls."
My experience has not been made tougher by the fact that I'm a woman -- in fact I think that there's something fortunate about [it], especially at this time. The year that I got my job on the show, there were three shows with the world "girl" in the title that were picked up. As much as we see examples of people hating women or not thinking of women as their equals, I think my life has been very charmed by the fact that I get to wear dresses and I get to be the girl. I'm so happy I'm a woman. I really am.
Is there a woman you know of who is Making It Work? We’d love to include her in our series. Send your suggestions to women@huffingtonpost.com.

Can Online Communities Be Healing?

During the past 20 years, there has been a radical shift in our culture with the breakdown of the social networks and structures that used to provide us with a sense of connection and community. Because of this, the most pervasive epidemic in our culture is loneliness, isolation, and depression.
We all know that these factors affect the quality of our lives. However, research has shown that it affects the quantity of our lives -- our survival.
The need for connection and community is primal, as fundamental as the need for air, water, and food.
Study after study has shown that people who are lonely, depressed, and isolated -- the most pervasive epidemics in our country -- are three to 10 times more likely to get sick and die prematurely than those who have a strong sense of connection and community. I don't know any factor in medicine that has a more powerful influence on our health and well-being.
When I first began conducting research 36 years ago, I initially saw support groups as useful for helping people adhere to changes in diet, exercise, and stress management techniques. What I soon realized is that the support groups were one of the most powerful interventions on their own terms.
In our program, support groups are safe places in which people can connect at a deep level. We can only be intimate to the degree we can make ourselves emotionally vulnerable -- opening our hearts -- and we can only do that to the degree that we feel safe.
So, the overarching principle in our support groups is to engender trust by creating a safe environment in which people can express their feelings to each other in open and honest ways. It's the major reason why our studies are showing 85-90 percent adherence to our intensive lifestyle program after a year.
If it's meaningful, it's sustainable. Intimacy is healing.
Even the word "healing" comes from the root, "to make whole." The word "yoga" comes from the Sanskrit word meaning, "to yoke," to bring together, to connect. These are very old ideas that we're rediscovering.
Nicholas Christakis at Harvard conducted research published in The New England Journal of Medicine and described in his TED talk showing how powerful these connections are:
• If your friends are obese, your risk of obesity is 45 percent higher;
• If your friend's friends are obese, your risk of obesity is 25 percent higher;
• If your friend's friend's friends are obese, your risk of obesity is 10 percent higher -- even if you've never met them!
That's how interconnected we are.
This pattern is also seen with many other measures, including smoking, drinking, depression, happiness, altruism, even predicting epidemics.
Here's some good news: These researchers found that social distance is more important than geographical distance. We found the same thing.
In other words, what matters most is feeling loved and supported by people you care about. It's great to be with them in person, but even a text message, a phone call, or an online community can be healing.
And that's the opportunity.
While the digital age has done so much to improve our world, it has dramatically changed our social structure, often further isolating us from each other. (If you've ever seen teenagers at a party or meal texting each other rather than talking to each other, you know what I mean.) With everything that you can imagine at our fingertips, many of the social interactions that help tie people together in a community have faded away. Are communities traditionally built on relationships, trust and familiarity a thing of the past?
A few years ago, I met Matt Michelsen, an engaging energetic entrepreneur who at the time was bringing people together in a highly interactive manner through a website his company, Backplane, developed for Lady Gaga. He was so successful in developing her community (LittleMonsters.com) that she had more followers than anyone on the planet. He's a social networking genius.
We talked about community and his idea of taking offline community interactions and behavior and translating those into online connections. What Backplane had developed was a truly social form of social media in that website LittleMonsters.com was built to connect people around shared interests rather than shared connections.
I asked Matt to help me create an online community in support of our work, Feel the Love, a supportive community for people who are interested in leading a healthful lifestyle. The community connects around the challenges and triumphs of doing just that. They celebrate each other's success and provide support for those who are facing obstacles.
As Feel the Love continues to grow, I'm proud of the interaction and support that the members provide to each other. They're passionate about health and they share things inside the community walls that they might not share elsewhere. I find myself routinely inspired by the courage the members have in opening up to each other of their own journeys and I enjoy reading and conversing with the members directly on the site.
Dean Ornish, M.D.
Medical Editor, The Huffington Post
Founder and President, Preventive Medicine Research Institute
Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
www.ornish.com