Harry Kane-engraved fiver worth £50,000 in circulation in Wales

A £5 note believed to be worth £50,000 after it was engraved with an image of England captain Harry Kane is now in circulation Merthyr Tydfil - Wales.

Artist Graham Short, one of the world’s leading micro-engravers, was inspired to make six of the special notes by Kane’s Golden Boot-winning exploits at the World Cup - one for each goal he scored in Russia.

Short decided to spend one of the distinctive fivers in the Welsh town where his father was born. But the owner of the Bal Off Licence in Merthyr Tydfil didn’t spot Kane’s portrait and handed the prized note back over the counter to one of his customers.

The artist has already spent two other notes into circulation in Meriden in the West Midlands and Elephant House in Edinburgh - the coffee shop where JK Rowling began writing her Harry Potter series.

He plans on spending one more in Northern Ireland, and has given one to the Football Association and one the Tottenham Hotspur striker.

Short previously sparked a nationwide note hunt in 2017 when he released a series of Jane Austen-engraved fivers, each valued at £50,000.

“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,” he explained.

"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.”

Manpreet Kaur, owner of the off license where Short’s latest note came and went, told the BBC: “Someone will give you a note and then another customer comes in and needs a five pound note. That’s why I missed it.”