A mysterious donation to a charity shop in Scotland turned out to be worth a small fortune — and the employees who worked there couldn’t believe their luck. Staff at a British Heart Foundation store in Edinburgh were stunned to learn that a collection of rare banknotes anonymosly donated to the shop was worth more than $100,000, per a press release from Noonans, a British auction house based in London that specializes in rare collectibles, published on Thursday, Oct. 15. The valuable notes arrived at the charity’s store tucked inside a series of albums, with employees initially unaware of their potential significance. “When the donation came into the shop, we all looked through the folders but didn’t know much about the banknotes, so we sent them to our eBay team in Leeds to investigate,” shop manager David McCormack said, according to PEOPLE magazine. The collection, which included nearly 160 lots of rare banknotes from countries around the world, ultimately sold for $114,434 at auction on Wednesday, Oct. 14. Among the donated items was an uncirculated banknote featuring a portrait of a young Queen Elizabeth, issued by the Board of Commissioners of Currency Malaya and British Borneo. Other notable pieces included an extremely rare 1947 Iraqi 10-dinar color trial and a specimen 100-riyal note from Saudi Arabia dating back to 1961. The notes ultimately attracted interest from collectors around the world, with many selling for higher prices than expected, according to Andrew Pattison, head of the banknotes department at Noonans, per a release. Pattison said that material of this quality is extremely rare and that collectors responded extremely well, with many notes selling for a little more than normal because of charitable nature of the sale. Also, Noonans said it waived its seller's commission, which allowed more of the proceeds to go toward the British Heart Foundation's efforts to fund research into heart and circulatory diseases. The sale showed how charities and specialists can work together, transforming a mystery donation into meaningful support.
