Rare and most valuable British banknotes worth up to £150 as new £20 launches today
BANK notes that turn up in your change could be worth up to £150 online – but only if they’ve got the right serial number. The new polymer £20 notes, which feature British painter JMW Turner, have been released into circulation today. We reported how if you manage to get your hands on one of […]
BANK notes that turn up in your change could be worth up to £150 online – but only if they’ve got the right serial number.
The new polymer £20 notes, which feature British painter JMW Turner, have been released into circulation today.
We reported how if you manage to get your hands on one of the new notes fairly quickly it’s worth then they could be worth hundreds of pounds.
This is because banknotes with very early serial numbers on them are often sought after by collectors. For example, the first note with the code AA01 000001 is given to the Queen.
It’s got us thinking about whether the cash in our pocket is worth more than face value.
We’ve taken a look at the types of banknotes that sell for the most on eBay and why – and some of them could be worth more than face value.
£5 note with the serial number 888888 – up to £150
A rare £5 note with a serial number made up of six eights recently sold on eBay for £149.02.
It was put on eBay with a starting price of £5 and received 19 bids in total, pushing up the price.
In the end it sold for just short of 30 times face value so it’s worth checking to see if your fiver has an interesting serial number on it.
AK47 £5 note – up to £93
Many collectors are interested in notes that with an AK47 serial number.
This is because an AK47 is a type of gun, particularly popular thanks to wannabe gangsters and the machine gun connotations.
One recently sold on eBay for £93.09 after attracting eight bids.
But beware if you’re selling a similar one on eBay.
Back in 2016, we reported how Gareth Wright had sold his AK47 fiver for £80,000 online, only for the buyer to not cough up the cash and take the mick.
What do the serial numbers mean on banknotes?
THE first four letters and numbers on a serial number is known as the “cypher”, according to the Bank of England.
The cypher, which is the AA01 part of the code, represents the note’s position on the sheet when it was printed.
The serial number is the six numbers that follow the cypher refers to the sheet that the note is printed on.
For example, there are 60 polymer £5 banknotes on each sheet and the first run had the cypher AA01 to AA60.
There are just under a million serial numbers printed for each cypher – from 000001 to 999000.
That means, there will be just under 60 million notes beginning with “AA”, before the cypher changes to “AB”.
No banknote has the same serial code which is why they can be worth a lot to a collector if you’ve got an interesting one.
Uncirculated M Lowther £10 note – up to £65
The Merlyn Lowther and Charles Darwin paper £10 notes were replaced by the Jane Austen polymer ones back in 2017, meaning that the paper versions are no longer legal tender.
At the time, shoppers were urged to change them up for the new ones but you may still have one at home.
It’s not clear why this note in particular sold for such an inflated amount on eBay.
It might be because it’s uncirculated, or that it was printed in the year 2000, or that the serial code starts with AA01 making it one of the first to be printed in the new millennium.
Even so, it sold for £65 on eBay after fetching the attention from two bidders.
Jane Austen £10 with low serial numbers – up to £44
The polymer £10 notes don’t appear to be as popular as the £5 notes but even so, some of them do sell for a small profit.
Notes with a low serial number, which typically start with the code AA01, show that they were some of the first to be made which makes them valuable.
One with the code AA01 442444 recently sold for £43.31 online after a bidding war from four potential buyers.
James Bond £5 note – up to £28
A James Bond serial number is always a hit among collectors. This is when a note’s number features the fictional spy’s code name, 007.
The serial number can be found at the bottom of the note underneath the hologram of the Queen on the side with Churchill on it.
Three years ago, one with the serial number AK37 007012 sold for £5,000 on eBay thanks to the first four numbers forming the name of a type of rifle.
Nowadays, you’re more likely to fetch around £28 for a James Bond bank note.
Jane Austen £5 notes – up to £5,000
Back in 2016, the Bank of England launched the new polymer £5 note, which featured the face of former-British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
They were the first polymer notes to be released into circulation.
But micro-artist Graham Short took matters into his own hands when he engraved a tiny portrait of author Jane Austen into the hologram on five of the notes.
Most read in money
One of them was donated to the Jane Austen museum but the others then spent the notes in local stores and cafes around the UK, before letting the public know what he’d done.
After being estimated to be worth up to £50,000 each, the nation embarked on a treasure hunt – three out of four of them have now been found.
But despite the hefty valuation, the most one of them sold for was £5,000 at a charity auction.