How to use # without creating a tag in Apple Notes?

I want to type these things in a Note:

The Dark Horse (Walt Longmire #5)

and

The Guilty, by David Baldacci (2017) (Will Robie #5)

but I don't want to create a tag named #5. Those aren't tags, those are non-tag text. What those two share (being book 5 in a series of books) is not an interesting facet. But I can't find a way to type # in Apple Notes without it creating a tag -- and worst of all, now I can't read that Note on my laptop because its OS isn't recent enough!

Is it possible to ESCAPE the # character somehow, so I can get the text "#5" without it being a tag?