A £5 note said to be worth £50,000 due to it featuring a tiny engraving of author Jane Austen has been spent at Melton Mowbray pie shop, Dickinson & Morris Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe.
The £5 note is one of four special notes engraved by specialist micro-engineer Graham Short. On each is a 5mm portrait of Jane Austen and a quote from the author to commemorate the 200th anniversary of her death next year.
So far, the notes have been used in a bakery in Kelso in Scotland and a café in Wales. A final note is expected to be spent in Northern Ireland next week.
As reported by the BBC, Short said: “As I enjoy pork pies, I thought where better to spend the English note than in Melton Mowbray?”
Meanwhile, Dickinson & Morris Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe’s Stephen Hallam told the BBC that the notes in the shop were being “scrutinised” after they were told that Short had visited the shop, but the note has not yet been found.
“I’m still here making pork pies… I’m not flying off to Barbados,” he said.
Anyone who finds one of the notes, which can be identified by the serial numbers AM32 885551, AM32 885552, AM32 885553, AM32 885554, has been told to contact the Tony Huggins-Haig Gallery, which launched the project.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
