Million pound banknote to fetch 40,000 at auction!

London, Sept 26 : A one million pound banknote, believed to be one of only two in existence, is expected to fetch 40,000 pounds, when it goes under the hammer next month.

The eight-inch-wide green note, which is no longer legal tender, will be auctioned by Spink, the specialist auctioneers, on Oct 1.

The Treasury issued the note on August 30, 1948, in connection with the Marshall Aid Plan after the Second World War.

Named after its architect - American Secretary of State George Marshall - the Marshall Aid Plan was the programme of funding given to Western Europe by America between 1948 and 1951.

US ploughed billions of dollars into Western Europe whose recovery from the 1939-1945 war had been slower than expected.

The million pound banknote was one of only nine, numbered 000001 to 000009, that were produced for a period of six weeks only.

Two of them, numbers 000007 and 000008, survived, as they were presented as mementoes to the respective American and British Treasury Secretaries. The others were destroyed.

A banknote collector Bill Parkinson, from, Burnley, Lancs, has entered number 000008 for sale along with other world banknotes.

Barnaby Faull, director of banknotes at Spink, said the note was on Bank of England watermarked paper.

"It was issued in connection with the Marshall Aid plan and was intended for internal use between financial institutions as a way of tracking money," the Telegraph quoted Faull, as saying.

"The notes were in use for only a period of six weeks and were not meant for public circulation.

"It is one of the rarest examples of British currency around today and is the highest denomination note," Faull added.

The note bears the signature of E E Bridges in the lower right hand corner and is cancelled over the signature and stamped 6 October 1948, Bank of England.

Number 000007 was sold by Spink through a private sale for 8,000 pounds in 1977, when the note was listed by the Guinness Book of Records as being the highest denomination in private ownership.

ANI