An “error” £20 banknote that mistakenly slipped into circulation could earn its Newbigging owner some extra cash when it goes to auction next month.
Glen Head came across the faulty Bank of Scotland note, which has been cut off line, when his mum Jane returned from a shopping trip to Edinburgh.
Mrs Head explained: “I was given five £20 notes in change and I spent three of them. I got home and gave one to my son Glen who said ‘What’s that’?”
On closer inspection they discovered the note’s cutting was misaligned vertically by about a centimetre.
Glen’s father used to collect coins and the family got in touch with Spink, the London auctioneers.
Mrs Head said: “The man at Spink said ‘They’ve given you more than they thought’. They said it was a very interesting note and in all their memory they had not come across a Scottish find.
“It would appear the Scots are more careful when it comes to money!”
Glen’s banknote has now been entered into Spink’s auction of world banknotes in London on December 5.
In the auction catalogue it has been described as a “very fine, very nice Scottish error”, and the guide price has been set between £120 and £160.
Andrew Pattison, banknote specialist at Spink said: “It’s the first note we’ve seen from Scotland.
“It’s quite an interesting error because it’s quite an obvious one. When it’s been cut it’s been moved a whole centimetre up.
“We see quite a few Bank of England errors but rarely other banks.
“They should be destroyed before they leave the factory but through innocent or non-innocent means they sometimes make their way off the factory floor to us,” he added.
While most people who come across an error note return them to the bank, Mr Pattison said there is quite a market for them.
“There’s people who collect nothing but errors,” he said. “There’s all sorts of things can go wrong like extra bits of paper and smudged ink.”
Glen, 22, and his mum are now hoping to have such a collector at the auction.
“It would be nice to see it go back to Scotland rather than an English or foreign buyer,” she added.
There are over 144 million Scottish £20 notes in circulation at any given time.
A spokesman for Bank of Scotland stressed just how rare it is for an error to make its way out of the factory.
He said: “We’re aware that a handful of these banknotes which had not been cut properly made it into circulation, which is an extremely rare occurrence thanks to the checks and procedures in place at the printers.
“This doesn’t affect its validity as the promise to pay, security features, signatures and serial numbers are all there.
“However, it had clearly had a major impact on the value of this note, which looks like being much more than £20.”