A real-life Willy Wonka 'Golden Ticket'-inspired search for a customised £5 note worth as much as £50,000 is on, and you could be the lucky Veruca Salt or Violet Beauregarde to nab the last one.

The note – which is one of four £5 polymer notes featuring a small portrait of Jane Austen – was engraved by one of the world's leading micro-artists, and includes a unique quote that can be found on the note's holographic foil near Big Ben, according to Refinery 29.

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Micro-artist Graham Short reportedly put the customised notes into circulation in December, by spending them in different parts of the UK.

Yes, I agree – this guy must have had a lot of time on his hands.

As a result the first note was found in a café in south Wales in December while a second was found in a Christmas card in Scotland, the BBC reports.

A third has most recently been found in a small bar in Northern Ireland which means there's just one note left – which Short originally spent in England – left to be discovered.

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Speaking about the note found in Northern Ireland, Short told the BBC: 'An old lady found it and she said 'I don't want my picture in the papers.' And she said 'if it sells for a lot of money it will be better if young children could benefit from it'.'

The notes were commissioned by the Tony Huggins-Haig Gallery in Kelso in the Scottish Borders in a bid to make art 'accessible to all', reports the publication.

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The notes have been valued at approximately £50,000 – a figure guided by the value of Short's other work.

The news comes after the Bank of England confirmed it would roll out a series of new £10 polymer notes that contain animal fat, despite anger when the latest £5 note was released containing the same ingredient last September, according to Bloomberg.

We'll be right back, we're just off to find something...

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Katie O'Malley
Site Director

Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.