The first banknote with a portrait of the Queen will be auctioned off this week to commemorate her Platinum Jubilee.
A five-shilling note printed in Bermuda on October 20, 1952, the year Her Majesty took the throne, is likely to fetch up to £500.
According to the Bank of England, five shillings (equal to 25p) is worth roughly £5 in today’s money.
The note was issued more than eight months after King George VI’s death and Queen Elizabeth II’s ascension to the throne.
It is unclear why Bermuda, which is a British Overseas Territory to this day, was the first to issue a banknote featuring the new monarch.
However, the notes were virtually identical to those from George VI’s reign, with her portrait simply replacing that of her father – and facing the other way, a British coinage tradition.
This example is just one of 500 historic banknotes, all featuring a portrait of the Queen, that are set to go under the hammer at Noonan’s Auctioneers in Mayfair, central London on Tuesday.
The auction, celebrating Elizabeth II’s unprecedented 70-year reign, features bank notes expected to fetch thousands of pounds.
A £5 note from 1971 in a leather wallet, which was presented to a former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, could fetch more than £5,000.
The wallet was once presented to Sir Jasper Quintus Hollom, who was Bank of England’s Chief Cashier between 1962 and 1966, then its Deputy Governor between 1979 and 1980.
A £5 note in 1971 is equivalent to around £51 in today’s money.
A ten shilling note issued by the Bank of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (now known as Zimbabwe and Malawi) dated May 27, 1957, is expected to sell for around £700.
A $100 note from Belize from the Eighties is estimated to sell for £1,800, while an Australian $4 note from the Nineties is thought to be worth around £1,000.
A $5 note from the British Caribbean Territories should “easily” sell for more than £1,000.
Each note on the auction paper will be issued with its own bespoke commemorative sale label.
The auction catalog will be a collectors piece in its own right and will contain full listings for every item, alongside complete discussions of every engraved portrait of the Queen that has ever appeared on a banknote.
This includes details of the jewelry she wore and the original photographs that inspired the engravers.
Many of these portraits are very famous and include the Annigoni portrait of 1972, which was painted to mark the Queen and Prince Philip’s silver wedding anniversary.
They also include the Dorothy Wilding photographs, which were the first official portraits of the new sovereign taken just 20 days after the death of her father.
The auction’s expert-in-charge Thomasina Smith said: “We are delighted to be holding this sale to coincide with the celebrations for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
“No other monarch has featured on such a wide range of notes from such a huge range of countries.
“Not only do they depict her through all 70 years of her reign, but stylistically they are wonderful works of art, showing the progression and history of the banknote.
“The sale will feature banknotes from all corners of the Commonwealth and there will be examples from every country on which the portrait of the Queen has appeared.”
The collection, titled The Platinum Jubilee Collection, are being handled by Noonan’s, an auction house specialising in coins, medals, banknotes and jewelry.
Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne on February 6, 1952, after King George VI died of coronary thrombosis at the age of 56.
Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh were on a royal tour at the time of his death, staying at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya.
Upon hearing the news, the royal couple immediately returned to the UK.
While she ascended to the throne immediately, the Queen’s coronation did not take place for over a year, on June 2, 1953.