User:Baron of Bastanchury

In the bottom center of the bill appear the words “Encoded serial” accompanied by a scanable QR code graphic. This QR code corresponds to the bills unique identifier, which is composed of 3 elements which are separated by hyphens. If scanned, the code will allow the user to access the bill’s alphanumeric serial code along with any other relvant information about the bill. This code will appear in the following format: The first set of alphanumeric codes correspond to that bill’s unique serial number within its series year and issue year, and is separated from the next two elements by a hyphen (-). It always begins with eight digits, and may or may not be followed by a letter. If all series numbers within a given year are eventually used, then this set of numbers will be immediately followed by a letter indicating the note belongs to the next set of series numbers— that is, all bills numbered 00000001 through 99999999 belonging to the first series of bills printed will have no following letter; if the Bank of Westarctica eventually issues more than 99,999,999 20-ice mark bills within a given series year (see below) and series code (also see below), then the first bill issued after the 99,999,999th bill will begin with the code 00000001A, followed by a hyphen and then the remaining two blocks of codes.

Following the first block number is a digit corresponding to the serial year that the bill was issued— for example, a bill issued in 2018 (the first series year for the 20 ice mark bill) will have a number 1; if a new series is created in any subsequent year (which could be 2019, 2020, 2030, or any year number), that year will be coded with the next higher number in the sequence (i.e., “2"). There is no upper limit to this number. All bills within a serial year will have the same basic format as other bills of that serial year, regardless of when that note was actually printed. If there is a major revision of a bill at a later date, this will invoke a new serial year code. The serial year code will always be followed by a hyphen.

Following the serial year and the issue year is a final letter block indicating the note’s series code for that serial year and issue year. This letter (or, potentially, letters, typically A-Z) corresponds to a minor variation for that note within its serial and issue year, and may be arbitrarily and non-sequentially chosen within the 26-letter Roman alphabet. All notes that follow the format and appearance of the original issue year and printing year will have the same letter code(s) in this field; if the Bank of Westarctica decides to issue a different kind of note during that same series year and printing year, then that note will bear a different letter(s) here. Only if more than 26 such series letters become necessary for a given series year and issue year will the field contain two letters (e.g., “FR” or “AG” or any other two-letter code). There is no upper limit to the length of the series code which a note may bear, so long as each series note is identical in appearance (other than its serial number) to other notes in the same series and can be clearly differentiated from other notes in different series’. The series code does not indicate the note’s series year or printing year, though certain series years and printing years will only bear certain series codes (which means a series and printing year may sometimes be deduced backwards from an apparent series code). All bills must have a series code, even if the appearance of that note never varies (in which case, all such notes issued that year and based on the same original year of would have a series code of “A” or “J” or some other lettter).

Examples: A bill whose QR code reveals its serial number to be 34992322C-4-1-E indicates that this is note number 34992322, which, by virtue of the letter “C”, means the third time this particular number has been issued within... ...Some serial year, here indicated by the number 4— let us say that the Bank of Westarctica decided to issue newly designed 20-ice-mark notes in 2018, 2020, 2023, 2030. Then the 20-ice mark note which was largely redesigned in 2030 would be coded with the number 4, followed by... ...A year of actual printing— here, a numeral 1 means that this note was actually printed in the same year as its series year, 2030, followed by... ...Its series letter, in this case “E”, which only means that this note is somehow different from any other bill bearing the letter “A” or “H” or any other code in this field.

Another example: A note whose QR code reveals its serial number to be 12237770-1-3-AZ indicates that this note, number 12237770 (no other notes from this serial year or printing year bear this same serial number because there is no letter following the 0 at the end), matches the design of similar bills originally printed in that same series year (which, because it is a 1, must be 2018 but was actually printed in 2021 (the numeral 3 means that this bill was printed in 2018+3=2021, and that this note’s appearance is essentially the same as the 2018 note) and is the “AZ” series bill printed that year (meaning that there must have been at least 26 other series bills also printed that year for that series year, though this field does not tell the user additional information nor if more than 52 such series notes were eventually printed for that series year and print year).

Third example: A note with the QR code indicating 00030020A-2-4-WEX. This indicates that the note holds the serial number 00030030 and was the second note to bear that serial number for series year (because the first note with that number did not have the letter A at the end) and was printed in the style of the 2018 note plus... ...Two years, =2020, meaning this note was the for the issue year was 2020, and was... ...the 4th design for that bill that year of issue, and... ...belongs to the WEX series of bills issued that year and in the format of 2018 (?) Note (?)