The last £50,000 Jane Austen £5 note is still out there, here’s how you can hunt it down
THIS week the third super rare £5 note was discovered in a Northern Irish boozer.
The generous discoverer actually sent the fiver back to its creator requesting that its £50,000 value be donated to charity.
This means there is only ONE Jane Austen engraved £5 note still to find.
Whether you would donate it to charity or splash out on your family... it could be YOU benefiting from its sky-high value.
The treasure hunt begins...
Artist Graham Short was commissioned by Scottish art gallery in Kelso to do a small engraving of Jane Austen on four of the new plastic five pound notes.
In true Willy Wonka style, Birmingham based Graham then went out and spent the four notes, one in each of the four nations that make up the United Kingdom.
And from then the hunt for the unique notes - each valued at £50,000 - started.
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How can I find the last one?
Familiarise yourself with the picture...
There's no point hoping to snap up that £5 note without being completely sure what you're looking for.
Don't be like others who let it slip through her fingers and familiarise yourself with the Jane Austen design nestling on the plastic surface.
The drawing is of the famous author is engraved so will be slightly indented but could easily just be mistaken for the doddle of a face if you don't look carefully.
Check the serial numbers...
The four notes each had a Jane Austen quote and a serial number on them:
- “If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more” – Emma
Serial number: AM32 885551 - “To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love” – Pride and Prejudice
Serial number: AM32 885552 - “A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of” – Mansfield Park
Serial number: AM32 885553 - “I hope I never ridicule what is wise or good” – Pride and Prejudice
Serial number: AM32 885
It is not clear which of these have been found and which is still in circulation. Maximise your chances by looking out for all four.
Look at the geography...
Each of the other three notes were spent in a different United Kingdom nation and - more importantly - each was found in that same country.
Experts have warned that the last note could be anywhere in the world, but if you take history as an example it feels likely it'll be in England.
More specifically, if you play the odds you are more likely to find it in Leicestershire, the home of Gary Lineker and Gok Wan.
The last note was spent at Dickinson & Morris Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.
Pork pie anyone?
The other three notes...
The first rare fiver was found by an elderly lady in a cafe in south Wales who is giving it to her granddaughter as a gift.
She found the note after it was used to buy a sausage and egg butty in the Square Cafe in Blackwood, south Wales.
The second precious £5 note was found in a Christmas card in the Scottish Borders.
One woman told The Sun Online exclusively how the note could have slipped through her hands after she spent it before realising its value.
Gillian Wynne noticed something unusual about one of the new £5 notes she had been given in an Edinburgh shop.
She said: “I’m certain I came across it, I’m absolutely kicking myself, I never knew until the next day.
“I had four fivers I thought that was unusual, four new fivers, I looked at the serial numbers because I knew that there was something about the serial numbers.
“I remember that I saw the face, and thought it was tiny and I thought someone had just drawn on it.”
She read an article about the special engravings the next day and thought it was “exactly what I saw”.
The third super rare £5 note was discovered in a small boozer in Northern Ireland called Charlie’s Bar in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh.
The discovery was revealed by Graham Short himself during an interview on BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire.
He said: “I went into a small bar called Charlie’s Bar and actually that is where I spent it – in there. It has just been found a couple of weeks ago.
“An elderly lady found it. She said ‘I don’t want my picture in the papers’ but she said if it sells for a lot of money it would be better if young children could benefit from it.”