Despite a significant cut in price, sales of the Penn State million-dollar commemorative bank note remain low.

Norm Brown, manager of The Student Bookstore, 330 E. College Ave., said of the two types of bank notes available at his store, the Joe Paterno 324th Win note and the note depicting the Nittany Lion, only 14 have been sold. SBS is the only carrier of the notes in State College.

"I think they're great," Brown said. "We're trying to draw some more attention to them. This weekend we'll have another shot at a hundred thousand or so people."

Students, on the other hand, do not feel the same way.

"I think this is a beautiful attempt to extract more money from Penn State's students and alumni," Alison Potter (senior-letters, arts and sciences) said of the commemorative money.

A portion of the money paid to buy the notes goes to the Naples Bank Note Scholarship, said Robert Bednar, C.E.O. of The Naples Bank Note Company, the company that created the pieces. The scholarship is for needy Penn State students, he said in a press release.

But some students don't think the value of the bank notes match their price tags.

"I don't think it's worth 20 bucks," said Aaron Joseph (sophomore-accounting). "I don't understand why anyone would buy commemorative money for $20 when they could buy a poster for $5 that would better depict what is shown on the bill. This isn't worth anything to anyone except in State College," he said.

Bednar remains hopeful that sales will pick up.

"We reduced (the price) so that students would be able to buy (the bank notes)," Bednar said. The price of the note was cut from $59.95 to $19.95, he said.

"The idea was to make it look like a piece of art so that people would hang it on their walls," Bednar said.

The unique design on the note prevents it from being turned upside down, he said. There are a number of other hidden features in the note. For example, there is an invisible text message that can only be read under ultraviolet light, Bednar said.

The serial number on the Nittany Lion note is the same number as the largest crowd ever to be in Beaver Stadium, he added.

"We've got more counterfeit features in this piece than the U.S. government has in their own money," Bednar said.

Richard Baratz, an engraver who has designed many U.S. postage stamps, did engraving for both pieces, he said.

"It's a really interesting piece, the more you look at it, the more fun you'll have with it," Bednar said.