Four rare Birmingham banknotes are expected to fetch nearly £1,100 when they are auctioned today.
The black-and-white notes, emblazoned with the words Birmingham Bank, were produced nearly 200 years ago when the city printed its own money.
The most valuable is an undated 19th century proof for a £10 note. It is expected to fetch up to £350 and was described by auctioneers Spink as "rare" and in "good, very fine" condition.
A £5 note issued by the Birmingham Bank on October 11,1805 - just ten days before the Battle of Trafalgar - is expected to fetch up to £300 at the Spink auction house in London, while an 1805 one guinea note, in "very fine" condition, is valued at up to £140.
A proof for a Birmingham Bank £5 note is tipped to sell for up to £300.
The two 1805 notes were produced by the short-lived Birmingham Bank founded in 1790 by William Dickenson and Thomas and Michael Goodall.Their names are on these notes, among the last to be produced by the bank which went out of business in 1806.
The two proof notes at the sale feature the names Taylors & Lloyds. This Birmingham bank was founded in 1765 and flourished for a century until 1865 when it became Lloyds Bank.
Barnaby Faull, head of the banknotes department at Spink, said: "All towns and cities in England used to issue their own banknotes." ..SUPL:
