How to find out if you’ve got a Harry Kane fiver worth £50,000
Three notes are already in circulation throughout the UK - here's how to find out if your fiver is one of them...
Credit: Кирилл Венедиктов - Wikimedia
Football may not be coming home, but £50,000 could well be if you're lucky enough to get your hands on one of four Harry Kane fivers.
Famous micro-engraver Graham Short, 72, decided to engrave the notes to mark Kane winning the World Cup Golden Boot - an accolade for being the highest goal scorer in this year's World Cup.
Short has spent the notes in three specific locations throughout the UK - with the fourth to enter circulation later this week. But where are the notes, and what do they look like?
What do the notes look like?
£5 notes launched in #England #Scotland #Wales and #Northern Ireland. Getting art beyond borders and helping fill those long summerdays. #kelso #itv #bbc #news #media #art #arte #artworks #football #live #life #creative #thhgallery #real #uk #love #peace #karma #feel #good #luck pic.twitter.com/QxHzG7C0gS
— THH Gallery (@thh_gallery) July 23, 2018
Graham has etched his 5mm portrait of Kane in to the transparent panel to the right of Big Ben.
To the left of Big Ben he has etched "World Cup Golden Boot Winner 2018".
Each note took six days to make, and Short goes to painstaking lengths to ensure the quality of his tiny artwork.
He only works between midnight and 5am, when vibrations from traffic noise are at their lowest. He also reduces his heart rate down to 30 beats per minutes, and engraves in between beats.
He has had botox injections and binds his right arm to the chair while he works to eliminate any unnecessary movement.
His previous work has involved creating art on a razor blade edge, a pinhead and a brass screw. Here's the artist in action:
Where are the Harry Kane notes?
Short planned exactly where he was going to spend each of the four notes, to ensure they’re distributed evenly across the United Kingdom.
Two other engraved notes are in the possession of Harry Kane himself and the FA.
He spent one note in Meriden, right in the centre of England, only a few miles from the M40 and M42 – meaning the note could travel in any direction. He spent another in Edinburgh, telling the Daily Star:
I spent one in Edinburgh near the coffee shop where JK Rowling first went as a young mum and started writing about Harry Potter. I just liked the magical feeling of that.
He spent the third note in Merther Tydfil in Wales, a place particularly close to his heart.
The Welsh note, I went to Merthyr Tydfil, the former mining town where my father was born. It’s not a wealthy area and I’m hoping that this note could help to change the life of someone in that area who finds it.
The fourth note will be spent in Northern Ireland sometime this week.
How much are they worth?
The notes are insured for £50,000 each, and Short says the lucky owners of them should expect to receive that amount of money if they’re to auction them off.
Previously Short etched portraits of Jane Austen onto £5 notes, one of which sold for £50,000, with the proceeds being donated to Children in Need.
I like the magical feeling of it and just want people to be as excited as I am. It’s just a bit of fun.
My art sells for a lot of money now and it’s really out of reach for most people, but if they find this and sell it and make a lot of money I’ll be really pleased with that.
Manage to get your hands on a note? Get in touch and let us know!
