New bank notes featuring the portrait of King Charles III entered circulation this week - but some in particular could potentially be worth a fortune.
Under a planned gradual rollout, the King's portrait will now appear on the existing designs of all four banknotes £5, £10, £20 and £50. The back of the banknotes will still feature Winston Churchill on the £5, Jane Austen on the £10, JMW Turner on the £20 and Alan Turing on the £50, and the design will continue to follow the existing colour scheme.
However, one specific detail on the new banknotes could make them worth some money - and much more than they are worth. Every banknote features its unique serial number to identify and date it with a four-digit prefix. For each prefix, there are 999,000 notes printed and put into circulation - from 000001 to 999000.
It is only the second time a monarch has been featured on a note, as previously banknotes have only used a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II (Anita Maric / SWNS)The Bank of England revealed in April that the four lowest serial numbers for each of the new King Charles notes and these are:
- £5: CA 01 000001
- £10: HB 01 000001
- £20: EH 01 000001
- £50: AJ 01 000001
However, you will not be able to get your hands on these specific ones, this is because they are in the hands of King Charles himself. If you do possess a note featuring one of these prefixes, with an early serial number, you may find it worth far more than its face value. The Bank of England has not confirmed whether the notes with the CA01, HB01, EH01 or AJ01 prefixes entered circulation with the first batch of notes this week.
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However, if you are keen to get your hands on one, collectors and the general public can do so at a charity auction hosted by Spink & Son on behalf of the Bank of England. The auction will take place on 13 of June for a lot of 122 £5 notes, followed by an auction for £10 notes on 27 June. The £20 and £50 note auctions will take place on 11 July and 25 July respectively. You can find more details about the auctions via the auctioneer's website here.
The experts say that to get any serial number below 20 is exceptionally rare and it has not been confirmed which ones will be available at the auction. However, the auctioneer Spink & Son note there could be a note with an "unprecedentedly low" serial number. According to Arnas Savickas, head of banknotes at auctioneers Spink and Son, the most sought-after serial numbers for the four different notes will start from:
- £5: CA 01 000003
- £10: HB 01 000002
- £20: EH 01 000002
- £50: AJ 01 000003
Arnas said: "Depending on the serial number of the note - it's reasonable to assume that the lowest serial number of a £5 could fetch between £250 to £500, while £10 and £20 notes could go for £500 and £1,000 respectively. A £50 then could go for several thousand pounds. It's not impossible that outside of the auction, someone could find notes with a serial number within the first million. Outside of the auction, someone could potentially find a note with a serial number as low as six figures - you could probably get one with 100000."
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