Some new polymer £5 notes could be worth over £200!
24 Sep 2016
On Tuesday last week the Bank of England put the first new £5 notes into circulation. The new notes are smaller, tougher and made of polymer - but they might also be worth a lot more than £5.
That's because collectors have realised that, as the BoE's first plastic note, some of them are rather special.
When Loans at Home took a look they realised that people were paying more than £200 to get their hands on them.
There are currently two things that mark the new fiver out as special: those that have come off the first press (with serial numbers beginning AA01) or the end of a press; and sequential serial numbers in a set of notes.
If you're lucky enough to get one of those, you're on to a winner, with examples of them selling for £227 , £215 , £196 and £161 .
The first notes left distribution centres shortly after midnight on 13 September– headed to cash machines across the country. From there they were taken to ATMs in six major cities in England and Wales, with members of the public being able to withdraw them from around 9 am onwards.
And there's one way to guarantee you can get your hands on one – head to the Bank of England itself.
While the Bank of England's head office in London doesn't have a cash machine attached, it does have a bank note exchange desk.
This lets anyone with an out of date note swap it for a current one – meaning anyone with a fiver can head there and swap their paper fivers for polymer ones.