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Bloomberg
A Bank of England (BOE) note with a face value of 10 pounds ($13) has sold for more than 700-times that amount at auction as Britain’s obsession with collectible new note issues shows no sign of abating.
The tenner, as the bills are known in the UK, has the serial number AA01 000010 and sold for 7,200 pounds — more than double the top estimate of auctioneers Spink, according to figures published on their website Friday. It is one of the latest issue of polymer notes featuring the early-19th century novelist Jane Austen. The sale was part of a charity auction of low or interesting serial numbers, alongside other rare bills. The most expensive item sold was a complete, uncut sheet of 54 ten-pound notes which went for 13,500 pounds.
The event follows a similar auction last year following the release of a new five-pound banknote, the BOE’s first polymer issue, which raised a total of 194,500 pounds. The fivers sparked intense interest from both collectors and the public, with newspapers publishing guides to spotting the most valuable and artist Graham Short sparking a national treasure hunt after he circulated a small number engraved with tiny portraits of Austen.
People, some carrying stacks of cash, lined up around the block outside the BOE for the tenner when it was launched on Sept. 14. Yet any hoping to receive the very lowest numbered notes will have been disappointed. Queen Elizabeth II usually receives AA01 000001 and the others are donated to people or institutions involved in their development.