Di-Faced Tenners
Medium: Offset lithograph in colors on wove paper, printed on both sides of the sheet
Year: 2004
Sheet: 45×30 cm (17 5/8 x 12 3/8 inches)
Edition: 50 signed
Artist’s Proofs: 21 signed AP (in Pink)
Publisher: Pictures on Walls
Artist’s Proofs: 21 signed AP (in Pink)
Publisher: Pictures on Walls
‘I promise to pay the bearer on demand the ultimate price’
Di Faced Tenners are counterfeit £10 notes, printed on both sides. “Di-Faced” is a play on the word “defaced” and refers to the fact that Banksy has altered the British currency by replacing the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II with that of the late Princess Diana. This is unquestionably a reference to Princess Diana’s estrangement from the Royal family, her critique of the British royal institution, and the hounding by the press that eventually ensued.
“It’s going to take one very special lady,
or a whole load of average ones, to get over you”
Banksy, Cut It Out, November 2004
Instead of “Bank of England” the note reads “Banksy of England.” Under the banner, an inscription reads “I promise to pay the bearer on demand the ultimate price” an ominous allusion to the fate of the late Princess, at the hands of the media. Beneath Charles Darwin, the bill reads, “Trust No One”.
The note is printed with inks on paper that are nearly identical to those used on official UK-issued currency.
A few years later, when Banksy created Pest Control Office to verify, authenticate, and issue Certificates of Authenticity to genuine Banksy works of art, he decided to incorporate the bills into the certificate of authenticity itself. Pest Control rips the bill in half, staples one half to the Certificate of Authenticity, and retains the other half for their records to help verify the provenance by writing the same set of numbers on each half of the bill. If they ever see a certificate of authenticity with numbers that do not match those on the half of the bill they retained, they know that they’re likely dealing with a fake piece.
On February 2019, The British Museum announced that it added its first piece by Banksy to its collection, and the piece is a counterfeit, a counterfeit currency that is, as it is the Di-Faced Tenner that will join the British Museum’s department of coins, medals, and other currency (rather than prints and drawings).
Di-Faced Tenners (Pink AP), 2004
Edition: 32 signed AP
At least 100,000 Di Faced Tenners were printed in August 2004 – meaning more than GBP 1 million of fake currency was created. They were initially crafted as part of a public art stunt which involved dropping suitcases full of the fake notes into the crowd at the Notting Hill Carnival as well as the Reading Festival.
Predictably, people scrambled to get their hands on the “free money,” and even after they realized the bills were counterfeit – attempted to use it at the festival and elsewhere anyway. This was likely a piece of social commentary from Banksy about the lengths people are willing to go to for money, and it’s also possible he saw humor in getting his own “currency” into circulation. It’s often said that “money makes the world ’round,” and Banksy reminds us that a crowd’s instinctive reaction to “free money” is equal parts unsurprising and a bit disappointing. Pictures on Walls, Banksy‘s print publisher, then released an actual print in 2004, of a sheet of 5 uncut Di-Faced Tenners in two columns as an edition of 50 prints all signed by the artist.
Auction Results
Di-Faced Tenners often sell at public auction as single banknotes. Those are not the original print released by Banksy in 2004, the only one that comes with its Certificate of Authenticity from Pest Control Office.
Bonhams London: 19 April 2023
Estimated: GBP 45,000 – 65,000
GBP 69,600 / USD 86,588
Di-Faced Tenner (Pink), 2004
Double-sided screen-print in colors on wove paper
Signed and dated in black ink, lower right
Inscribed ‘AP 29/32’ in pencil
One of 32 artist proofs aside from the numbered edition of 50
Bonhams online, 29 June 2021
GBP 94,000 / USD 130,017
Di-Faced Tenners, 2004
Signed and dated in black ball-point pen, lower right
Numbered 30/50 in black ink with the publisher’s blindstamp, lower left
Signed and dated in black ball-point pen, lower right
Numbered 30/50 in black ink with the publisher’s blindstamp, lower left
Sotheby’s online: 26 March 2020
GBP 30,000 / USD 36,368
Di-Faced Tenners, 2004
Signed and dated in black pen, lower right
Numbered 39/50 in black pen with the publisher’s blindstamp, lower left