‘Staggeringly rare’ £500 note from 100 years ago in incredible condition found & it’s set to sell for eye-watering price

A ‘STAGGERINGLY’ rare £500 banknote is tipped to sell for a whopping £28,000 when it goes under the hammer.

Dating back to 1929, the note is the only surviving note signed by Basil G Catterns, Chief Cashier of the Bank of England.

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The second highest currency during that period, the note would typically be traded between banks, merchants and wholesalers.

It was first pushed into circulation in 1725 and was legal tender until 1943.

The £500 note was signed off by the Chief Cashier because of its high value.

Because it was never cashed, the owner was likely extremely wealthy.

For over a decade, the banknote has been in the possession of a British collector and is tipped to spark a fierce bidding war when it goes under the hammer at London-based auctioneers Noonans.

Andrew Pattison, head of the banknotes department at auctioneers Noonans, said: “This is a staggeringly rare and important note, and it is in wonderful clean condition, especially considering it is now almost 100 years old.

“Anyone dealing with large sums of money back then might have had occasion to use one of these, but they would have been unheard of by regular people.

“The remarkable fact is that this was never paid into the bank again.

“For anyone who collects Catterns notes or indeed any Bank of England notes, this would be likely the pinnacle of their collection.”

The sale takes place on March 14.

How to spot rare coins and banknotes that could be worth hundreds

Rare coins and notes hiding down the back of your sofa could sell for hundreds of pounds.

If you are lucky enough to find a rare £10 note you might be able to sell it for multiple times its face value.

You can spot rare notes by keeping an eye out for the serial numbers.

These numbers can be found on the side with the Monarch’s face, just under the value £10 in the corner of the note.

Also if you have a serial number on your note that is quite quirky you could cash in thousands.

For example, one seller bagged £3,600 after spotting a specific serial number relating to the year Jane Austen was born on one of their notes.

You can check if your notes are worth anything on eBay, just tick “completed and sold items” and filter by the highest value.

It will give you an idea of what people are willing to pay for some notes.

But do bear in mind that yours is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it.

This is also the case for coins, you can determine how rare your coin is by looking a the latest scarcity index.

The next step is to take a look at what has been recently sold on eBay.

Experts from Change Checker recommend looking at “sold listings” to be sure that the coin has sold for the specified amount rather than just been listed.

People can list things for any price they like, but it doesn’t mean it will sell for that amount.

We explain further how you can find out if you have a rare coin worth thousands sitting around the house.

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk