New £5 note with Jane Austen engraving spent at tiny bakery sees them inundated with customers seeking the rare note worth £50k
A SMALL bakery on the Scottish Borders has seen customers flocking to the counter to get their hands on a special £5 note worth thousands.
Granny Jean's Home Bakery in Kelso had a flurry of interest from hopeful people who turned up after it emerged the special fiver featuring a tiny portrait of Jane Austen had been spent there.
The rare £5 was spent on two pies last Monday and is now in circulation for a lucky person to find.
Micro-engraver Graham Short, 70, turned the note, one of four, into an artwork estimated to be worth as much as £50,000.
And last Monday Graham visited the pie shop to spend one of the unique fivers.
Alan Malone, head baker at Granny Jean's, said: "Graham came in on Monday of last week and paid for two pies.
''l was through the back, and there was only one assistant, Patsy Johnstone, in the front of the shop.
"We had no idea that this was a special fiver, and we only found out on Wednesday when the news broke.
"Since then, there has been a lot of people coming in to pay for their pie with a tenner in the hope of getting that fiver in change.
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"However, unfortunately, that particular note is long gone. I reckon it will have gone to someone in the shop who got change on Monday, between 10.30am and 1.30pm.
"I know this because we ran out of fivers around that time.
''It could be in London, Aberdeen or anywhere by now.
"The whole thing has been a great advert for the shop as we've never been busier."
Kelso gallery owner Tony Huggins-Haig came up with the idea with the Birmingham artist, whose art work he has sold on previous occasions.
He said: "It was really to get art into the public eye.
"We have worked with Graham on other projects and we came up with this Willy Wonka golden ticket idea.
"If anyone is in possession of the fiver, it is theirs to do what they want with it.
"If they wish to keep it as a work of art, that is great, but if they want to sell it, they will have a marvellous Christmas.
"We have not yet heard from anyone, and it could be anywhere, so I'd urge everyone to check their wallets."
The note is one of four produced by Graham, and the other three have been spent in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Each note features a 5mm portrait of Austen encircled by a quote from one of her books.
One note was spent in a cafe in South Wales, but has not been found after the owner realised he must have given it away in change.
The special note was spent in the Square Cafe in Blackwood, South Wales, at the end of last week – but the manager had no idea they were in possession of the valuable fiver.
Graham has previously engraved art to items such as a razor's edge, pinhead, brass screw, football stud and a fountain pen.
His last piece of art, a portrait of the Queen engraved on a speck of gold inside the eye of a needle, sold for £100,000.
Some collectors have been paying hundreds of pounds for the first new plastic notes released, and now people are frantically looking through their wallets to see if they have got one of these special notes.
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