RARE MILLION POUND BANK NOTE TO BE SOLD

An extremely rare £1million bank note is expected to sell for only £50,000 ($80,000) when it goes under the hammer this month.

But it's not as good a deal as you might think - because the note issued by the Treasury for economic reconstruction 63 years ago is no longer legal tender. It was one of only nine given to the UK by the U.S. in President Harry Truman's Marshall Aid plan after World War Two.

The rare note will be sold this month by a British private collector and was issued on August 30, 1948, before being cancelled on October 6, 1948. 'How it found its way from the bank in the first place is anybody's guess,' auctioneer Chris Webb told the Daily Mirror.

The green banknote is number seven of the nine given to the UK. It is believed two of the notes were later given as mementos to the respective U.S. and British Treasury secretaries at the time.

Marshall Aid, named after U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall, was funding for Western Europe from the U.S. between 1948 and 1951.

Only two of them have survived - numbers 000007 and 000008. The latter went for £78,300 ($125,000) at auction three years ago.

They were only intended for internal use between financial institutions to track money, reported the Daily Telegraph.

Number 000007 was sold in a private sale for £8,000 ($13,000) in 1977 and listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the highest denomination privately owned at the time.

It says: 'This Treasury note entitles the Bank of England to payment of one million pounds on demand out of the consolidated fund of the United Kingdom.'

To read the complete article, see: Who wants to be a millionaire (for $80,000)? Extremely rare bank note given to UK by U.S. after World War Two up for auction (www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2038059/Extremely-rare
-1million-bank-note-given-UK-U-S-World-War-Two-auction.html)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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