The earliest prints of the new currency featuring King Charles III could be worth thousands.
An expert has urged people to check their wallets for specific King Charles III notes that could be worth up to £17,000. These notes are the earliest prints featuring the new monarch’s image and can fetch thousands of pounds when sold at auction.
According to currency expert the Coin Collector UK, who shares advice on notable coins and banknotes to look out for, the most valuable of these notes are the ones with the lowest serial numbers. This indicated that they were among the first to be made.
He revealed that one such note sold at auction for a staggering £17,000, while others have sold for more than £5,000. In a video, he explained: “New King Charles notes worth crazy money. You must get checking your notes as they could be worth hundreds, or even thousands of pounds.”
The expert advised how to check your notes. “The key thing to check is the serial number, the lower the serial number, the higher the price it sells for,” he said. The “earliest runs” of the new King Charles notes begin with the prefixes:
These will be followed by a sequence of six numbers. He said: “Hopefully, the number includes lots of zeros with a number between one and nine at the end.”
However, the earliest prints will not be found in circulation. “These are the earliest prints worth the most, a set of the first notes printed were gifted to King Charles,” he added.
“So unfortunately, these cannot be found. Some were also sent to auction and the £10 note with the serial number HB010002. Sold for the huge sum of £17,000. Notes ending with numbers three to six were also auctioned and these each sold for up to £5,500 each.”
The Bank of England says that banknotes featuring a portrait of King Charles III were first issued on June 5, 2024. The portrait of the King appears on existing designs of all four banknotes (£5, £10, £20, and £50), with no other changes to the existing designs.
“This means you can check these notes in the same way you can check our polymer banknotes featuring Queen Elizabeth II,” it says.
Banknotes that feature the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II will remain legal tender and are co-circulating alongside King Charles III notes. New King Charles III banknotes have only been printed to replace those that are worn and to meet any overall increase in demand for banknotes.
