$50 star notes
A star at the end of the serial means the note replaced a sheet spoiled during printing. On a $50, whether that is worth anything depends entirely on the size of the run it came from, and $50 runs range from 64,000 notes to 3,200,000.
Look up the print run for this star note. Enter the serial and it identifies the exact run, its size, and whether that makes it scarce.
What the data says about $50 star notes
| Runs indexed | 32 |
|---|---|
| Districts covered | 8 |
| Smallest run | 64,000 notes |
| Typical run | 640,000 notes |
| Largest run | 3,200,000 notes |
| Scarce by run size | 11 of 32 |
| Common | 15 of 32 |
15 of the 32 indexed $50 star runs are common, so "it has a star" is not by itself an answer. The scarcest recorded is the Series 2004 New York, NY run of 64,000 notes.
The rule that decides it
A run of 640,000 notes or fewer is the collector threshold, but only counts if no larger run exists for the same denomination, series and district. When a larger run exists, collectors source from that one instead and the small run's premium never appears. That conditioning is why some small $50 runs rank as only moderately scarce.
The full explanation, the tier definitions and the lookup itself are on the star note lookup.