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New banknotes worth £78,430 have been sold for more than 11 times that at an auction for charity.
The notes, all featuring King Charles’ portrait, only entered circulation last June and were put up for bidding by the Bank of England.
The £5, £10, £20, and £50 notes were an attractive draw to collectors for their very low serial numbers. A single £10 note with the serial number ‘HB01 000002,’ sold for £17,000 at bidding.
The very first issues – which would feature the serial number ‘000001’ – were all presented to the monarch, leaving all the next in line to go under the hammer.
The single note that attracted the next highest bid was a £50 with serial ‘000003,’ selling for £14,000, followed by a £5 with the same serial, selling for £11,000.
Another lot saw a sheet of 40 connected £50 notes (worth £2,000) sell for £26,000. This was a record for any Bank of England auction.
The notes were put up for auction by the Bank of England, with the sales raising a total of £914,127 for ten charities. The auction was carried out by Spink.
Sarah John, the Bank of England’s executive director of Banking said: “I am thrilled that the auctions and public ballot of low numbered King Charles III banknotes have raised a remarkable £914,127 that will be donated to ten charities chosen by Bank of England staff.
“Each charity does incredible work and the monies raised will have a positive impact on people across the UK.”
The chosen charities has each received £91,400 from the proceeds of the auction. The Bank says this money could be used by The Childhood Trust to life 2,600 of London’s children out of poverty, or by the Trussell Trust to fund around 7,600 food parcels.
The King Charles banknotes are of significant historic value as they mark the first time the Bank has changed the monarch on the UK’s currency. The late Queen Elizabeth II was the very first monarch to appear on the banknotes in 1960.
