£20,000 £5 Notes

Four special £5 notes featuring Pride and Prejudice author Jane Austen are being put into circulation and could be worth more than £20,000.

16:30 08 December 2016

Four special notes featuring art by specialist micro-engraver Graham Short was spent on Monday in Kelso in the Scottish Borders. The remaining three will be spent in Northern Ireland, Wales and England this week. 

 

Mr Short’s last artwork, a portrait of the Queen on a pinhead, sold for £100,000. 

 

The 5mm engraved portrait of Pride and Prejudice author on the Bank of England notes marks Austen’s 200th death anniversary next year. 

 

Each note features a different quote. 

 

Tony Huggins-Haig Gallery in Kelso, which launched the project, said that the notes could be worth tens of thousands of pounds at auction.

 

He said: "All of Graham's work has an insurance valuation of about £50,000 at the moment. It's a reasonable estimate."

 

The first note was spent at the weekend following the launching of new art collections in Kelso. 

 

"I do know that the place that it was spent in haven't got a clue that it was spent in there," said Mr Huggins-Haig.

 

"It was spent somewhere where everybody goes in. It is not a chain, it was a local business."