Open Menu 0

Archive for engraving

Engraved £5 notes worth £20,000

Engraved £5 note

At Engravers Guild, the feature-piece of many of our personalised gifts is the custom engraving. The individual message is what makes it unique and creates a special exchange.

However, we could not help but be impressed by an engraver in Birmingham, whose work you cannot even see at all.

Graham Short, the world famous ‘micro engraver’, creates engraved images so small that they cannot be seen without the aid of a microscope.

He came to attention when inscribing the entirety of the Lord’s Prayer onto the head of a pin, and his latest commission could create a windfall jackpot for some lucky people this Christmas.

To mark the launch of the new £5 note, Mr Short painstakingly carved tiny portraits of Jane Austen onto the special notes, next to the images of Sir Winston Churchill and Big Ben.

Reported by the Birmingham Mail, it took two weeks to engrave the images on each of the four £5 notes, with the painstaking work being carried out at night when the vibrations from traffic are lower.

An art exhibitor who has previously shown similar work, estimates that each of the four £5 notes now in circulation could be worth over £20,000.

So before you hand over that crisp polymer note the next time you’re at the tills, pull out your magnifying glass first to check that you don’t have the real-life ‘Golden Ticket’.

Engraved cufflinks fit for a King

Engraved cufflinks for Duke of Windsor

Engraved cufflinks have been the mark of distinguished gentlemen for centuries.

No more was this true than for the Duke of Windsor. Formerly King Edward VII, he embodied English style and was the most photographed man in the world for a time.

His sartorial sense defined the gentleman’s attire of the day, to the extent that even the way he tied his neckwear took on his name – the Windsor knot.

Another essential part of his wardrobe was his cufflinks. His cufflink collection was one of the greatest in the world. And prize amongst them were his engraved cufflinks.

He owned the most expensive set of cufflinks ever sold at auction. It was a set made by Cartier London that consisted of double sided cufflinks engraved with E & W.

On the back they were engraved Edward 23/6/35, and Wallis 19/6/35. Estimated to bring £70,000 – 90,000, the set sold for a record £115,250 in 1987.

The new face of engraving

With Engravers Guild only recently launching the new online store, we have to pay homage to the titans of the engraving world.

It is difficult to get more heavyweight than the American Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

The US government agency is responsible for making the famous green dollar bills, which are produced by letting ink settle in fine-line engravings on paper.

As Engravers Guild maintains a brisk production line in London, we have to admire how the Bureau of Engraving and Printing produces almost seven billion notes a year.

But today we have further reason to pay our respects. A few hours ago it was announced that it will start engraving a woman onto America’s paper currency for the first time in more than a century.

While we are sad to see old Mr Hamilton depart the $10 bill, we welcome the fact that a female face will soon take her place on the famous dollar notes.