Thought to be worth tens of thousands of pounds, second of only four notes with micro portrait of novelist is discovered

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

It is the fiver that could earn you tens of thousands of pounds: one of four Jane Austen £5 notes has been found in a Christmas card in the Scottish Borders.

The ultra-rare notes, engraved with a tiny portrait of the novelist, were released secretly around the UK earlier this month.



The first was found in change from a cafe in south Wales a fortnight ago. The second was discovered on Thursday in a Christmas card, meaning two are yet to be discovered.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The new £5 note. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Anyone finding one of the £5 notes has been advised to contact the Tony Huggins-Haig Gallery in Kelso which launched the project.



The gallery in the Scottish Borders said the recipient of the latest note wished to remain anonymous and that he/she had checked the note “on the off chance”.

“When somebody opened their Christmas card from a loved one, it was contained in that Christmas card,” Huggins-Haig said. “The person who put it in didn’t necessarily know what they were doing. That’s two down and there’s still two out there. Keep checking your change.”

Graham Short, a specialist micro-engraver from Birmingham, said he came up with the idea of engraving a 5mm portrait of Austen on the transparent part of the new plastic Bank of England £5 notes to mark the 200th anniversary of her death next year.

Short’s most recent work, a portrait of the Queen on a pinhead, sold for £100,000. Huggins-Haig said the engraved notes could be worth tens of thousands of pounds at auction.

“All of Graham’s work has an insurance valuation of about £50,000 at the moment. It’s a reasonable estimate,” he told the BBC.

Short spent the first note on a sausage and egg sandwich at Square cafe in Blackwood, Caerphilly, on 8 December, having chosen the south Wales town where his mother was born in 1909.

The note was discovered a week later and the lucky finder said she intended to give it to her granddaughter as an investment for when she grows up.

Each note features a different quote from Austen’s novels. Both finders said they intended to keep the notes rather than sell them, according to the Huggins-Haig.

Short said: “I don’t know whether I’m disappointed that they haven’t wanted to sell them because I wanted them to have some money for Christmas, but the fact that they are so happy to keep them, that’s nice as well.”

He admitted he was also checking his change, adding he was “terrified” of finding one. “When someone gives me a £5 note in my change now I always check, wouldn’t it be awful if it came back to me, people would say it was a fix,” Short said.