Wha's like us... Marion and Scott Munro

WHEN they were launched in 2005, Royal Bank of Scotland £5 notes graced by Jack Nicklaus's visage – he made his last Open appearance that year – immediately became collectors' items. Few have taken it so far, however, as Marion and Scott Munro, who have managed to get their hands on 140 of the special edition notes and are now converting them into far more money than they are worth.

The canny couple, from Glasgow, have framed 89 – which now trade for around £40 each – and turned them into a work of art which could net them more than £3,500 when it goes up for sale. The face value is £445.

Marion, 36, who has been out of work for a year, wants to use the money raised by an eBay auction to help open her own salon. As a money-making venture, it has all the hallmarks of the buccaneering Scottish entrepreneurship that has served the country well in the past.

Making money out of money – particularly the legal tender of the now humbled RBS – is a nice touch of sangfroid when faced with dire economic circumstances.