The Tony Huggins-Haig Gallery

An interview with Tony, at home in his gallery

An interview with British contemporary artist Tony Huggins-Haig about his life, his art and the voyage of the Art House Gallery, Kelso, conducted within the familiar surroundings of his beloved gallery.

JUST Earn £20,000 with £5 NOTE Carved with Hidden Face of Jane Austin : ONLY 4 Available in UK

The famous artist who increased the value of four new £5 notes by engraving an almost microscopic image of Jane Austin on them could face prosecution.
Artist Graham Short and engraved four Bank of England issued £5 polymer notes with a minute portraits of the author and put them into circulation.
Art experts have put an estimated price tag of £20,000 on the quirky pieces of currency.
However, micro-engraver Mr Short may have committed a crime by etching onto the notes.

Under the Currency & Banknotes Act 1928 it is illegal to deface a bank note by printing, writing or impressing words, letters or figures on them.
The Bank of England said the 'question of whether or not to prosecute in individual cases is up to the police and the courts'.
In 1994 Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty from electronica band The KLF famously burnt £1 million.
Destroying money is not illegal but the duo also nailed £1 million in £50 notes to a wall. This saw them slapped with a hefty £9,000 fine for defacing the money and an extra £500 for reprinting costs.
These days the offence is punishable by a fine of up to £200.

The chances of one ending up with one of Mr Short's fivers in your pocket are evidently as tiny as the etchings, but curious shoppers can start by checking the serial number: they all start with the same seven digits, reading 'AM32 885'.
The tiny artworks by the Birmingham-based micro-engraver were done in collaboration with the Tony Huggins-Haig Gallery in Kelso, Scotland.
Short engraved a 5mm portrait of Jane Austen on the translucent area next to Big Ben on each of his £5 notes.
He finished the etchings by framing them with a circular quote from one of the late author's famous novels.
It apparently took Short more than two weeks to engrave each note.
The notes were 'used casually' and put into circulation over the weekend, with a fifth donated to the Jane Austen Society.

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Mystery Irish woman gives £50k fiver to charity

The note, worth an estimated £50,000, was found in Northern Ireland by a woman known only as J.
She sent the fiver back to the Scottish gallery it came from, and asked for it to be used to benefit a charitable cause.
£5 note enclosed, I don't need it at my time of life. Please use it to help young people, she wrote.
The anonymous benefactor is known to be from County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland.
The Tony Huggins-Haig Gallery, in Kelso, Scotland, told BBC News NI the five-pound note would likely be auctioned off in aid of Children in Need.

Woman Gives Away Rare Jane Austen Fiver Worth £50,000 As 'She Doesn't Need The Money

Woman gives away rare jane austen fiver worth £50,000 as 'she doesn't need the money at my time of life'

The anonymous donor wants the money to be used to help young people and has given the rare note to charity
A rare Jane Austen fiver worth £50,000 has been handed to charity by an anonymous donor.

The woman, known only as “J” gave the note away to “help young people” because she doesn’t “need it at my time of life.

It was posted to the Scottish gallery where it was created with in conjunction with Birmingham micro-artist Graham Short.

Just four notes were specially engraved with a portrait of Jane Austen and spent in each of the home countries.

The first was found in a café in south Wales in December, with the second discovery coming in Scotland inside a Christmas card the same month.

But the third was discovered in Northern Ireland by the woman who posted it back to the Tony Huggins-Haig Gallery, in Kelso, Scotland with a note which read: “£5 note enclosed, I don’t need it at my time of life. Please use it to help young people.”
According to the gallery, the woman got in touch in mid-January to tell them she had found the note while visiting Enniskillen in County Fermanagh.

Michael Huggins, the gallery’s assistant manager, said the woman then asked for a couple of weeks to “mull over” what she might do with it.

He added: “Then we received this note in the mail along with the fiver. The note just said she wanted it to be used to help young people.”

He described her voice as “soft” and “older” and said: “With that and the note when she refers to her age, we think it’s an older woman. But, all we know is that she is from County Donegal and that she wants the money to go to benefit young people.”

It is thought the note will now be auctioned off in aid of Children in Need.