Posts Tagged ‘Polymer Banknote’
How much is my polymer banknote really worth?
In 2016, the Bank Of England issued their first ever polymer banknotes to replace the paper £5 note with a cleaner, safer and stronger alternative.
Collecting banknotes is a serious hobby that many thousands of people all over the world enjoy, and so it’s no surprise that when these new notes were released, collectors were eager to start building their collection.
With so many stories in the press and listings on eBay claiming certain notes were worth way over face value, it’s easy to see how the nation got swept away with the idea of their new polymer banknote being worth thousands of pounds.
So now, three years on, and with the release of a second polymer note, as well as plans for the new polymer £20 and £50 notes, how much are your polymer banknotes really worth?
‘Rare’ polymer banknotes
AA01
In the early days following the release of the new notes, I’m willing to bet that every single person in the country checked theirs at some point to see if they were lucky enough to find one with the prefix AA01.
The annual Bank Of England charity auction held at Spink and Son Ltd in London auctioned off a polymer £5 note with the serial number AA01 000017 for £4,150, however the following year, a Jane Austen Polymer £10 note with the serial number AA01 000010 sold for a staggering £7,200 – over double the guide price!
Whilst these first run banknotes may be desirable to some collectors, we must remember that 1 million AA01 banknotes were actually printed for each denomination.
They aren’t likely to fetch much more than face value, and our latest eBay Tracker suggests that prices for AA01 banknotes are actually going down, with the previous figure for AA01 £5 notes dropping by £4.50 to £10.
The story is much the same with AA01 £10 notes, which were initially selling on eBay for between £40 and £70, but have now dropped considerably – from £18 last June to £15 in January 2019 (as taken from our eBay Tracker).
AK47
Considered collectable due to the machine gun connotations, polymer notes with the prefix AK47 were thought to be worth tens of thousands of pounds following the new £5 release in 2016.
This idea emerged after a £5 banknote with the prefix AK47 fetched a winning bid of £80,100 on eBay. Whilst the seller must have been overjoyed with the jackpot amount, it actually turned out the buyer had no intention of paying up.
As exciting as a novelty serial number may be, there’s no way we could imagine paying anywhere near £80,000 for it! Could you?
A quick look at the most recent eBay sold prices for this serial number now show that people are willing to spend around £7.50 to get their hands on this note now, which we think is far more reasonable!
Whilst the same excitement picked up again following the polymer £10 launch in 2017, with some collectors paying between £20 and £40 for an AK47 £10 note, prices have again come down to a much more reasonable level, with AK47 £10 banknotes selling for around £15 on eBay now.
Sold listing on eBay for an AA01 £10 banknote in 2019
James Bond theme
Another novelty serial number collectors were searching for was the 007 James Bond theme.
This banknote, described as an “AK37 007 James Bond Bank of England Polymer £5 note” in a lovely condition, sold for £5,000 back in 2016.
Although there must be plenty of James Bond fanatics out there, we can think of so many other items of James Bond memorabilia that fans could spend £5,000 on!
Whilst some chancers are still listing notes with 007 in the serial number for exaggerated prices on eBay, the sold listings reflect the fact that buyers just aren’t interested now that the hype has faded, with very few sold listings of the 007 £5 note and none of the 007 £10 note.
Key Jane Austen dates
In 2017, a polymer £10 note with serial number AH17 75 (the year of Jane Austen’s birth) sold on eBay for a whopping £3,600 – 360 times face value!
Key serial numbers collectors would be interested in include 16 121775 and 18 071817 which would represent the author’s date of birth and death respectively. Serial number 17 751817 would be her birth and death year combined.
Considering all the possible prefix variations that could accompany these serial numbers, there would be just 676 notes issued for each of the key dates mentioned above, from prefix AA through to ZZ.
Whilst these might become more popular with collectors in future, the initial excitement has now died down, with hardly any genuine Jane Austen birth or death date banknotes listed for sale on eBay anymore.
Genuine Rarities!
Jane Austen micro-engraving
In December 2016, specialist micro-engraver Graham Short came up with the idea of engraving a 5mm portrait of Jane Austen on the transparent part of the new plastic £5 notes.
He included a different quote around each one, ensuring that each note was unique.
According to Gallery owner Mr Huggins-Haig, artist Graham Short’s work has an insurance valuation of £50,000!
The first of four notes featuring art by specialist micro-engraver Graham Short was found in a cafe in South Wales, whilst another was found inside a Christmas card in Scotland. The third £5 note was found by a mystery old lady in Eniskillen in Northern Ireland who donated it to charity.
So that means there is just one more rare £5 note left to find with the handiwork of Birmingham micro-artist Graham Short…
For those of you hunting down the last remaining fiver, the serial number to look out for is AM 32 885554.
Harry Kane micro-engraving
As football fever hit the nation in the summer of 2018, Graham Short was at it once again, creating six unique £5 notes, each engraved with a tiny portrait of footballer Harry Kane with the inscription ‘World Cup Golden Boot Winner 2018’.
Two of the notes were given away – one to Harry Kane himself and the other to the FA – but the remaining four notes were distributed around the county and each note is insured for £50,000, so anyone lucky enough to get their hands on one can expect that sum if they auction off the fiver!
As of yet, we haven’t heard of these notes being found, so keep checking your £5 notes for the portrait of Harry Kane and look out for these serial numbers:
Serious Collectors: What to look for…
Generally, collecting banknotes is not about the serial number it possesses, but instead the chief cashier is of most interest, particularly on UK banknotes.
This is where real rarities can be found – in the form of Chief Cashier signatures.
Banknote designs rarely change but on average cashiers change every 5 or 6 years with some in the position for as little as 3 years.
So if you are genuinely interested in collecting banknotes, the chief cashier is what you should really be looking for.
What about the £20 and £50 polymer notes?
The Bank Of England will be issuing a new polymer £20 note featuring
artist JMW Turner in 2020 and also plan to issue a £50 polymer note after this.
The £50 will feature someone who has contributed to science and the chosen person will be announced in summer 2019.
Are you a banknote collector and if so, which notes do you have in your collection? Let us know in the comments below!
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Why the new Northern Ireland Banknote is turning heads…
Ulster Bank has recently revealed plans to print an innovative, new design for vertical banknotes which will be entering circulation in Northern Ireland next year.
This turn of events breaks the mould for UK currency, with the Bank of England first issuing banknotes in 1694 to a landscape rather than portrait alignment.
Whilst the banks of Northern Ireland have traditionally issued their own money, only once before has a note like this ever been printed in the UK, during 1999 when The Northern Bank issued a vertical polymer note to mark the millennium.
It featured an illustration of the Space Shuttle on one side and stopped being issued in 2008 when they reverted to the standard landscape paper notes, however the note can still be used today.
Northern Bank vertical polymer £5 note from 1999. Credit: polymernotes.com
Ulster Bank plans to follow in the steps of the Bank of England by replacing their current paper currency with polymer £5 and £10 notes.
However, this new design goes to the next level, not only updating the material but also changing the entire orientation of the note.
Northern Ireland’s new banknotes will be based on the theme “living in nature” with Strangford Lough in County Down and Brent Geese featuring on the £5 note and Lough Erne in County Fermanagh, the Irish hare and Guelder-rose shrubs featuring on the £10.
New vertical Northern Ireland Banknote to enter circulation next year. Credit BBC News
Switzerland’s first vertical banknotes entered circulation in 1995 and for the past two years have won the “Bank Note of the Year Award” as voted for by members of The International Bank Note Society (IBNS).
Earlier this year Canada introduced their first ever vertical banknotes, hoping to create more space for a bigger image and to set it apart from existing polymer bills. Their 10 dollar note is currently nominated for Banknote of the Year 2018.
Bermuda, Israel, Venezuela, Argentina and Cape Verde are among other countries to use vertical banknotes in their currency.
These banknotes may be easier to use at cash and vending machines and may make it clearer to see the notes in your wallet, but what are your thought on this change in design and would you like the Bank of England to follow suit? Let us know in the comments below!
Credit: theibns.org
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The Jane Austen Polymer £10 notes to look out for…
When the new polymer £5 note was released in September 2016, serial numbers became the talk of a nation. Stories of early serial numbers selling for thousands of pounds were commonplace. An “AK37 007 James Bond Bank of England Polymer £5 note” sold for £5000 – 1,000 times its face value!
A ‘James ‘Bond’ £5 note sold for £5,000 on eBay
So with the release of the new Jane Austen £10 note TODAY, I’ve taken a look at the serial numbers I think everybody will be searching for…
World famous author, Jane Austen, features on the new Polymer £10 note
The first prefixes I considered were JA01, JA75 (Jane Austen’s birth year) and JA17 (the year of Jane Austen’s death).
However, whilst these will likely become popular with collectors in the future, it could be many years before notes with these serial numbers enter circulation due to the huge amount of possible combinations that would come before ‘JA’.
Prefixes on the £5 notes started at AA and there are 60 notes on a sheet, AA01- AA60. For each of these cyphers there are 999,000 serial numbers printed: 000001 to 999000. Therefore for the first AA cypher there’s an incredible 59,940,000 notes!
I know that with the £10 note being larger, there are only 54 notes per sheet but that’s still A LOT of combinations.
UK Bank notes are produced in very large batches (Image: the Bank of England)
So I started looking at the main 8 digit serial numbers and there are certainly some key Jane Austen dates collectors will be looking out for:
- Serial numbers 16 121775 and 18 071817 would represent the author’s date of birth and death respectively.
- Serial number 17 751817 would be her birth and death year combined.
- And true Jane Austen fanatics would know that Serial number 28 011813 is the date that Jane Austen’s most celebrated novel, Pride and Prejudice, was first published.
What others serial numbers should I look out for?
The first is obvious, AA01 notes are the first to be printed and will undoubtedly be popular amongst collectors.
The rest of the AA prefix notes will be interesting to collectors but not necessarily worth a huge amount, although that said, some £5 notes did sell for around £20 last year – four times their face value.
There may well be a rush to find the AK47 serial numbers again and James Bond 007 will likely be popular.
Consecutively numbered notes are always interesting to collectors too, one man sold three consecutive AA01 notes for £456.
Will all the serial numbers be circulated?
Actually, no. The Bank of England will always hold back some of the notes with the earliest serial numbers, donating them to people or institutions that were involved in the development of the note or who traditionally receive a note when a new series is issued. For example, the Queen receives AA01 000001 and the Churchill War Rooms received a new £5 note with serial number AA01 001945, the date that WWII ended.
The Bank of England did offer people the chance to own some of the earliest serial numbers when they held an auction (which raised £194,500 for a number of charities). However, these were not cheap, the earliest note (AA01 000017) sold for £4,150 and the average price for a single £5 note was £865.
Can you request specific serial numbered notes from the bank?
Sadly not. For the launch of the new £5 note 440 million bank notes were printed and these were printed in very large batches.
There will be even more new £10 notes printed than the £5, to service the country’s 48,000 ATMs for example, so it’s just not possible for the bank to separate certain serial numbers.
How much should I pay for a new £10 note?
The simple answer is, it’s completely up to you. An early serial numbered £10 note will be a genuine piece of the country’s history. It’s likely the bank of England will hold another auction of early editions, so if you have the disposable income, why not?!
However, when the polymer £5 note was released we saw a collecting frenzy. The prices people were paying (and demanding) for some of the early notes was vastly inflated and in some cases ridiculous, as Yasmin explained earlier in the year.
Just remember, a year down the line the market has settled and you can now pick up an AA01 note for around £7.00 on eBay.
Exclusive 2017 Jane Austen £2 Coin and £10 Banknote Pack
2017 marks the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death. To celebrate such an inspirational female figure, the Royal Mint and the Bank of England have chosen to honour her on a brand new £2 coin and £10 banknote.
You can own one of the very first Polymer £10 notes issued in perfect mint condition alongside the 2017 Jane Austen £2 Coin issued by The Royal Mint.