Rare antique £5 notes to fetch thousands at auction

SCOTTISH banknotes worth thousands of pounds more than their face value are to go under the hammer.

The two £5 notes, produced in Aberdeen about 100 years ago, are expected to fetch more than £2,000 each when they are sold next week. They remain legal tender and could technically still be used to pay for purchases.

Michael O’Grady, a consultant for London auctioneer Dix Noonan Webb, said the two £5 notes would be sold separately. He said: “Back then, £5 was a lot of money, so they would have been handled very carefully and securely.

“There are a growing number of people who collect paper money, in the same way that there are stamp and coin collectors.”

One of the notes is dated May 1898 and the other April 1903.

They were issued by the Town and County Bank and the North of Scotland Bank, both of which were based in the Aberdeen. The notes, which are owned by a private collector, form part of a large trove of rare provincial English and Scottish money that will be auctioned in London on Tuesday.