Brits are being urged to check their wallets for rare £5 notes that could be worth a fortune – with some collectors willing to pay up to 4,000 times their face value
Brits are being urged to have a look through their wallets in case they find rare £5 notes that could be worth a small fortune. Back in 2016, micro-engraver Graham Short created 10 special £5 notes, adorned with tiny portraits. Each note has an insurance valuation of a whopping £50,000.
The first set, consisting of four notes, features an engraving of Jane Austen. Three notes were successfully located after being released in 2017 to mark the 200th anniversary of the author’s death, with one given to the Jane Austen House Museum. The final missing note, with the serial number AM32 885554, was last spent in Melton Mowbray and is still out there.
More recently, six notes featuring Harry Kane were put into circulation and could be worth more than £20,000.
Mr Short was inspired to create the Kane set following England’s World Cup campaign, which saw the striker win the Golden Boot for top scoring as England reached the semi-finals.
“I’ve done six – one for each goal he scored – for Harry himself, the FA and four to be spent as we did with the Jane Austen notes around the UK and Ireland,” Short said.
One was given to Harry Kane himself, another to the Football Association, and the remaining four were spent in locations including Meriden, Edinburgh, and Merthyr Tydfil, with a final one intended for Northern Ireland. To date, none of the Harry Kane fivers have been found.
These rare notes could fetch as much as £20,000 – with bidders willing to cough up as much as a house deposit for the sought-after item.
Will you find the fiver? Special Harry Kane fiver serial numbers:
- AC04 487157
- AC04 619245
- AC06 244707
- AL52 603019
- AM33 305187
- BA26 831255
Meanwhile, collectors have been trawling the internet for £5 notes with specific serial numbers – as they squirrel them away in the hope of increasing their value
This has resulted in a surge of £5 notes being flogged on eBay and other online marketplaces. Among the most coveted notes are those with the ‘AA01’ prefix, indicating they’re from the very first batch ever produced.
However, these aren’t the only £5 notes causing a stir online – notes with the ‘AK47’ serial number have been listed for as much as £160,000 but most have been selling for about £100.