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A new £10 note has sold for £3,600 on eBay - how to spot if yours is worth thousands

The new plastic tenner featuing renowned novelist Jane Austen is changing hands for sums way outstripping its face value (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
The new plastic tenner featuing renowned novelist Jane Austen is changing hands for sums way outstripping its face value (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

That new plastic tenner in your pocket may well be a shortcut to a family holiday – with change to spare.

One eBay user from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk closed the bidding on his or her £10 note featuring the visage of author Jane Austen for £3,600.

MORE: New £10 note: The special serial numbers to look out for

And the reason? It’s all to do with the serial number which begins AH plus the number 1775 – the year Austen was born.

Britons are becoming ever more savvy when it comes to checking their currency for the unusual.

With a number of new coins and notes introduced over the past few years, speculators are looking to hook up with collectors.

MORE: New £10 note enters circulation: Everything you need to know

This new £10 note went for £3,600 on eBay (member cwri2820)
This new £10 note went for £3,600 on eBay (member cwri2820)

While AA01 codes on the new plastic fiver were the ones to look out, it appears AH has captured collectors’ imagination on the £10 note.

New AH £10 notes appear to be attracting bids up to three times their face value, while the first of the AA01 notes are changing hands for £250.

MORE: Angry vegetarians hit out as Bank of England confirms new plastic £5 note contains animal fat

Experts suggest people should keep an eagle eye open for notes featuring JA01 (as in Austen’s initials); JA75, as that is her birth year; and JA17, the year of the author’s death.

Website Changechecker.org says: “Whilst these will likely become popular with collectors in the future, it could be many years before notes with these serial numbers enter circulation due to the huge amount of possible combinations that would come before ‘JA’.”