Some lucky duck got a £5 note 'worth £50,000' in a Christmas card
Yes, I know Christmas is almost over and we'll soon be singing "Auld Lang Syne", but I've still got "All I want for Christmas" by Mariah Carey in my head. The reason? Because all I want for Christmas is a fiver.
Not just any old fiver. One of those ultra-rare £5 notes worth £50,000. You know the ones with the special Jane Austen inscription? There are only four of them in circulation in the UK and two have already been snapped up.
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The first was found in a cafe in south Wales in mid-December after Graham Short -- the micro-engraver behind these tiny Austen portraits -- used it to pay for a sausage and egg sandwich.
The latest one turned up in Scotland today. Some lucky sod found the note in a Christmas card.
Basic arithmetic dictates that there are still two out there. Originally suspected to be worth £20,000 ($25,160) the notes have reportedly been insured for £50,000 ($61,660) each.
Quick, check your pockets and memorize these serial numbers right now: AM32 885552 and AM32 885554.
Anyone who finds the notes has been advised to contact the Tony Huggins-Haig Gallery in Kelso, Scotland, which is behind the project.
This is the stuff Willy Wonka dreams are made of!
Anne-Marie Tomchak is the UK Editor of Mashable, where she heads up the company's operations from London. She has spent over a decade reporting and presenting for national and international broadcasters including the BBC, RTE, Deutsche Welle, American Public Media and NPR. In 2013, Anne-Marie launched the social media investigative unit BBC Trending. During her time at the corporation, she also developed the mobile video offering on the BBC News app and fronted live social broadcasts. Anne-Marie is a leading digital media voice contextualizing the role of technology in the modern world. She has made a number of feature length TV documentaries for Ireland's national broadcaster RTE in her capacity as UK Editor for Mashable, including ‘Cloud Control: Who Owns Your Data?’ (Nov 2016) about big data and digital fingerprints and “Will A Robot Steal My Job” (Nov 2017) about the impact of AI and automation on the workforce. The Irish Times listed her as '30 Irish Women You Need to Know' for International Women's Day and she is one of Silicon Republic's '30 Incredible Irish people leading a European invasion'.
