AN EXTREMELY rare £500 banknote worth up to £22k has been revealed – and it goes to auction tomorrow.
Dating back to 1936, the note is only the second of its kind known to exist, and the first one to go up for sale.
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It was issued from a branch of the Bank of England in Leeds and goes on auction on March 1st 2023.
Set to fetch up to a whopping £22k at auction, the banknote was signed by the then chief cashier of the Bank of England, Kenneth O. Peppiatt.
Auction house Noonans said £500 notes were only ever issued at three branches of the Bank of England – London, Liverpool and Leeds.
It will go under the hammer at the two-day auction of rare banknotes at Noonans in London’s Mayfair starting on Wednesday 1st March.
Andrew Pattison, head of the banknote department at Noonans, said: “It is indeed a fantastic note.
“£500 notes are very rare and, in fact, only available from three Bank of England branches – London, Liverpool and Leeds. Although some were issued in Birmingham and Manchester none have ever come to light.
“Of those available, Leeds branch, like this one, are the rarest. It comes from a long-term collector and is only the second example ever to come to the open market.”
The note has the signature of Kenneth O. Peppiatt, who was Chief Cashier at the Bank of England from 1934 to 1949.
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It is expected to fetch the mammoth sum of between £18,000 to £22,000.
But this is not the only banknote with huge value – you might even have a secret fortune of your own in your wallet.
How can I check if my banknote is rare?
Some rare coins and valuable notes can be worth so much more than their face value.
It can be hard to know if your change is special and holds a hidden secret.
Early serial numbers
Banknotes that have very early serial numbers are often sought after by collectors.
This is because not many of them tend to make it into circulation.
When the Bank of England issues a new note, it donates those with significant numbers to the people and institutions involved in the development.
For example, the first note AA01 000001 is given to the Queen.
The bank also tends to donate lots of the earliest notes to charities for auction.
But the Bank of England confirmed not all the early £20 notes were reserved, meaning some of the rarest AA notes are in circulation.
AA notes are the most valuable, but anything with an A in it could be worth more than the value of the note itself.
An AA01 £5 note sold on eBay for over £60,000 in 2017.
Consecutive serial numbers
Notes with consecutive serial numbers can also catch a collector’s eye, particularly if the numbers are low.
If you can combine an early serial letter, with a consecutive number you could be onto a winner.
For instance, if you get one with AA1234567, it’s likely to be popular.
Two notes with the serial numbers AA01090561 and AA01090562 sold for more than £50 in March 2020.
To make a profit, people usually try and sell them on eBay or Facebook, sometimes making hundreds of pounds.
Special meanings in serial numbers
When the Jane Austen £5 notes came out in 2017 there was lots of interest in numbers that were linked to her life.
For instance, collectors hunted for the serial numbers 16 121775 and 18 071817 because they are the author’s birth and death dates.
Also, the £20 notes released in 2020 feature artist JMW Turner, so serial numbers with his birth date – 1775 – could be a winner.
If you find one starting with an A that also includes his birth date that should be worth even more.
One special serial number to keep an eye out for is 1775 1851 which combines the painter’s birth and death date.
A note starting with JT could be valuable in theory, but there would have to be a lot of notes printed to reach this, so the notes are unlikely to end up in circulation.
There are also sets of serial numbers that always prove popular regardless of who is on the note, for instance 007 for James Bond or AK47.
AK47 notes have been listed for as much as £160,000 but most have been selling for about £100.
Is my banknote secretly worth more?
There’s plenty of banknotes you could find in your loose change worth more than they seem.
Like this £5 note which set a dad-of-three up to make a small fortune.
On average, they can fetch around £30 on eBay – an increase of £34 from two years ago.
Plus, hundreds of notes amounting to £21,000 at face value were set to go under the hammer in 2022.
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This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk
