A COLLECTION of rare bank notes printed in North Yorkshire and recently discovered at a fair on York’s Knavesmire are expected to fetch up to £7,000 at auction.

The bank notes, which were originally worth £1 or £5 when they were printed during the 19th century, are now collectors’ items.

The notes are being sold by London Coins Ltd, which picked the collection up at a coin collectors’ event at York Racecourse.

The Victorian currency had been the private collection of an unidentified man, whose £18,000 collection was sold following his death.

Semra Cetin, general manager at London Coins Ltd, said: “Although these notes have long since lost their redeemable value they have a much more substantial value to collectors. We have estimated their worth, but it may well go over that. There is a lot of interest in things like this.”

The collection includes notes printed between 1830 and 1883 by the Selby Bank for the York and County Banking Company, which are now valued between £200 and £800 each, and a £5 note printed by the York Union Banking Company in 1882, now valued between £400 and £600.

The auction is set to be held at The Grange Hotel in Bracknell, Berkshire, on March 5 and 6.