THE third of four specially engraved £5 notes worth £50,000 has been discovered at a bar in Northern Ireland.
The discovery of the super rare note – engraved with a tiny portrait of Jane Austen – means just one remains in circulation.
Birmingham micro-artist Graham Short is the man behind the tiny 5mm designs on notes in Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland and England.
Each note is engraved with a different quote from Jane Austen’s famous novels.
The first was discovered in a café in Wales back in December, while the second was delivered inside a Christmas card in Scotland later the same month.
Mr Short said that a third note had been located in a “small bar called Charlie's Bar."
Speaking on BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire yesterday, Mr Short said an elderly woman who wished to remain anonymous had found the note in Ireland.
He said: “I went into a small bar called Charlie’s Bar and actually that is where I spent it - in there.
"It has just been found a couple of weeks ago.
“An elderly lady found it. She said ‘I don’t want my picture in the papers’ but she said if it sells for a lot of money it would be better if young children could benefit from it.”
The woman added that at her “time of life” she did not need the note and asked Mr Short to use it to help people.
The Tony Huggins-Haig Gallery, which is run by Mr Short, then decided to auction the fiver and donate the money to Children in Need.
The discovery means that there is just one more specially-engraved five pound note left to be found – somewhere in England.
Mr Short added that he engraved the notes at night time to avoid vibrations from traffic affecting his work.
The artist uses a stethoscope to monitor his heart rate and only engraves between heartbeats to avoid jolting.
A previous project saw Mr Short engrave the words of the Lord’s Prayer on the head of a pin – a surface just 1.5mm in diameter.
The four quotes on the banknotes read:
- "If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more," from Emma
- "To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love," from Pride and Prejudice
- "A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of," from Mansfield Park
- "I hope I never ridicule what is wise or good," from Pride and Prejudice
