Four rare black and white St Albans five pound notes, issued 170 years ago, are set to fetch at least £500 at auction next month.

The four Victorian fivers are all emblazoned with the words 'Bank of St Albans' and were issued by the short-lived bank in 1841 and 1842, shortly before it went bust in 1842.

At least one of the notes is signed in the bottom right hand corner by the bank's proprietor, George Alfred Muskett, who was also MP for St Albans between 1837 and 1841 and one of Rickmansworth's most colourful 19th century inhabitants.

Muskett became a big shot in the Hertfordshire banking world in 1834 when he established the Bank of St Albans. But like so many early nineteenth century English provincial banks, the Bank of St Albans went bust and in 1843, the year after his bank's collapse, Muskett died aged 57, although it is not clear whether he committed suicide.

Now 170 years later four five pound notes from Muskett's St Albans bank are up for sale and they are expected to fetch between £500 and £700 at the British banknotes auction at Spink in Bloomsbury, London, on Tuesday October 4.

Barnaby Faull head of the banknotes department at Spink, said: "In the late 18th and early 19th centuries most towns and cities in England used to issue their own banknotes. Merchants would get together and set up their own banks, but their notes, which were like IOUs, could only be used locally, so when provincial banks such as the Bank of St Albans, went bust their notes became completely worthless."

To read the complete article, see:
Plastic £5 notes? These rare St Albans fivers are worth £125 each (www.stalbansreview.co.uk/news/14755500.Plastic
___5_notes__These_rare_St_Albans_fivers_are_worth___125_each/)

Thirteen rare 18th and 19th century Aberdeen banknotes are expected to fetch about £6,000 when they go under the hammer.

The valuable black and white bills are among four hundred rare Scottish banknotes put up for sale by the Edinburgh-based Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland.

They will be auctioned at Spink in London's Bloomsbury on October 4.

Barnaby Faull, head of the banknotes department at the auction house, said: "The collection of the Institute of Bankers in Scotland is the largest single Scottish group Spink have offered for many years.

"It consists of a wide range of issued notes, proofs, specimens and other material spanning the full age and range of Scottish banks."

One of the oldest and most valuable Aberdeen notes in the auction is an unissued £20 dated August 1, 1797, and produced by the Banking Company in Aberdeen.

It is described by Spink as "very rare" and is expected to sell for between £600 and £800.

A specimen £5 produced in or around 1825 by the Aberdeen Town & County Banking Company and featuring engravings of the bank's Aberdeen headquarters and of Union Street is expected to fetch between £400 and £500.

To read the complete article, see:
Would you pay £6,000 for these Aberdeen banknotes? (www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/aberdeen/1034587/undefined-headline-2070/)