A pensioner was stunned to find a £5 note he’d withdrawn was missing the Queen’s head.
Ray Harris, from Bilston, noticed the fiver he got from his building society did not include the image of Queen Elizabeth II on the small silver oval next to Big Ben.
When he examined the note more closely, the 80-year-old realised a Bank of England printing machine must have slipped over that section of the note.
Ray Harris from Bilston in the West Midlands was stunned when he spotted a Bank of England printing machine error on his fiver
The West Midlands father-of-one now suspects he either has a unique note worth more than its face value – or that it just doesn’t count as legal tender.
‘I think I got it when I went to the building society but I definitely won’t spend it,’ he said.
‘I thought to myself: “That’s got to be unusual.”
‘The machine that prints them must have either just run over it or spat it out without printing the Queen’s face on.
The bottom image shows how £5 notes are supposed to look while above is the note Mr Harris was baffled to withdraw from his building society
‘I don’t know if it’ll be worth anything, but I think it’s quite special – well, to me it is anyway.
‘I just hope it counts as legal tender or if it’s one-of-a-kind then it might be worth a few more bob than a fiver hopefully.’
Ray, who has been married to wife Joan, 77, for 56 years, says people don’t believe him or see the difference initially when he shows them his unique note.
The former metal worker was stunned to discover a Bank of England printing error had missed a Queen’s head off the note
The retired sheet metal worker says he’ll sell it at a charity auction if he discovers it might be worth something.
‘People seem to not realise what the money in their pocket looks like,’ he said.
‘I have to show them what a normal note looks like to demonstrate what my fiver hasn’t got.
‘If it is worth anything I’d be happy to know to raise a bit a money for a cancer charity, but otherwise, I’ll just keep it as an anecdote.’