£5 Jane Austen note worth £50,000 donated to Children in Need
Howard Lake | 20 February 2017 | News
The third of four £5 notes bearing a tiny engraving of an image of Jane Austen has been found and donated to charity.
The four notes, all on the new polymer £5 notes, were engraved by artist Graham Short. They are reported to be worth up to £50,000 each. They were spent by the artist in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
The note spent in Northern Ireland was used in Charlie’s Bar in Enniskillen in December, and was found a few weeks later by a woman from County Donegal.
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Short told BBC Radio that the “elderly woman” had decided to donate it to charity anonymously. She posted the £5 note back to the Tony Huggins-Haig Gallery in Scotland which launched the project, including a cover note which read:
“£5 note enclosed, I don’t need it at my time of life. Please use it to help young people.”
Barry Murphy, the manager of Charlie’s Bar, told Belfast Live:
“We’re happy and shocked the fiver was spent in Charlie’s Bar and even more delighted the lady who received it has donated the note to charity.”
One note left
The first £5 note was found in December in a cafe in South Wales. The second accompanied a Christmas card in Scotland. With the Northern Ireland note located, that leaves just one note, originally spent in England.
Its serial number is AM32 885554.
The four fivers
[Editor’s note: Vimeo video at https://vimeo.com/194746858 no longer available]
£10 Jane Austen note
The £5 Jane Austen notes are not to be confused with the upcoming £10 Jane Austen notes, which are due to appear in September 2017. The latter have a portrait of the author on the reverse.
- FirstFiver campaign may have raised £12.5m says CAF Research (14 November 2016)
- FirstFiver: how charities responded to a simple fundraising idea (27 September 2016)
- FinalFiver: another chance to fundraise from £5 notes (26 January 2017)
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.