Noteworthy chance to buy some history?

A new £5 note has gone for sale online, for the princely sum of £50.

The new fivers entered circulation on September 13, and are the UK’s first plastic-based currency (although the Bank Of England prefers the term ‘polymer-based’).

One punter from Hemel has offered his for sale on the website Gumtree for £50, but Kate Bouvier from The Bank Note Store thought this was an optimistic asking price. She said: “The key is the prefix to the serial number. AA01 is definitely the first run and the one to look out for. This is AD01 – but as always it depends what a buyer is prepared to pay.”

Some of the AA01 notes have already been auctioned off for heady sums, fetching up to £4,150 - a 800 per cent mark-up.

The Bank Note Store, based in Daventry, is an online supermarket offering a huge range of British and world paper money for both beginners and advanced banknote collectors.

Visit their website at www.thebanknotestore.com/