Why this crumpled £5 note is set to earn its Telford owner thousands of pounds

The polymer £5 note is in demand because it has a serial number starting AA01, making it one of the very first produced.

It is now attracting eye-watering bids on auction site eBay.

The note has been put up for sale by Piotr Sobczuk, from Telford, and its serial number AA01 444444 has attracted more than 77 bids and - now more than £13,700.

The auction is due to close at 11.30am tomorrow. It has attracted attention because of its repetitive serial number.

UPDATE: Click here to see what the note finally sold for

New fivers featuring Winston Churchill with serial numbers starting AA01 are attracting huge sums online from collectors. At a Bank of England charity auction in October, one new fiver sold for £4,150. The note, with serial number AA01 000017, was the lowest number offered to the public. The lowest numbered note, AA01 000001, was given as a gift to the Queen.

Mr Sobczuk is believed to have come across the note in his change and researched the serial number when he spotted it looked unusual.

Jesse McClure, of TV's Storage Hunters, secured Lot Four at the Bank of England auction, a five pound note carrying the serial number AA01 000020 for £1,200. He said he had since been offered £7,000 for it. There are 999,999 new fivers with the AA01 prefix and experts say if these have a very low or eye-catching run of digits in the remaining serial number, then they are more likely to be collectable.

The one Piotr has listed on eBay will be of interest to collectors thanks to its rounded numbers.

The launch of the £5 notes has seen much fanfare and micro-engraver Graham Short has got involved, and put tiny portraits of author Jane Austen to four of the new £5 notes – three of which have been found and could fetch up to £50,000.