Community ActionHopefulUK14 Oct 20261 min read

A charity-shop banknote donation raises £85,860 for heart research

An anonymous donation of banknotes to a charity shop at Straiton Retail Park has raised £85,860 for heart and circulatory disease research.

Staff at the British Heart Foundation shop realised the albums might contain something unusual. They sent them to the charity’s eBay specialists in Leeds, who recognised their potential value and involved auction house Noonans.

Almost 160 lots of specimen and trial banknotes went under the hammer on 14 October. Noonans waived its vendor commission, leaving more of the proceeds for the charity’s work.

Front of a 1925 specimen 100-piastre banknote, with specimen perforations — Illustrative example of a specimen banknote: a 1925 Banque de l’Indo-Chine 100-piastre note. It is not from the donated collection. Image: Banque de l’Indo-Chine / Art Hanoi, public domain. Image source

The donation supports a substantial research effort: BHF’s latest annual-report announcement records £103 million awarded to new research in 2025–26. This sale does not itself establish a medical breakthrough, and one exceptional gift cannot resolve the rising costs facing charity shops.

Its useful lesson is straightforward: specialist knowledge can uncover value that a shop team might otherwise miss. An unexpected collection has become fresh funding for research into conditions affecting millions of people.