Rare Brummie banknote could fetch £30k at auction

The £100 bank note is expected to fetch many times its face value when it is auctioned

A 130-year-old banknote from the Birmingham branch of the Bank of England will be auctioned on Thursday and could fetch up to £30,000, auctioneers said.

The note’s face value is £100 and it was signed by Horace G Bowen who was chief cashier between 1893 and 1902.

Andrew Pattison, head of the banknotes department at Noonans Mayfair auctioneers, said it was one of only two surviving banknotes with a value above £5 signed by Mr Bowen and issued outside of London.

“Its condition is spectacular,” he said. “It would be a jewel in the crown of almost any 19th Century banknote collection.”

The banknote, dated May 1894, was predicted to sell for between £24,000 and £30,000.

The Bank of England had a branch in Birmingham from 1827 which was relocated three times before it closed in 1997.

The sale will also include a variety of banknotes from English provincial banks as well as banks in Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey.

A £500 note from October 1929 has been given a sale price of £20,000-£24,000 and is the only known surviving £500 note signed by Basil G Catterns, who was chief cashier of the Bank of England between 1929 and 1934.

It is one of several rare Bank of England notes in the sale which Mr Pattison says have rarely been seen at auction for several decades.

A £50 note, from April 1780, is also included in the auction as is a £5 note from the Bank of England branch in Bristol from June 1850.

The very first Manx bank note ever issued will also be included.

The £1 note with serial number one dates from November 1882 and is decorated with an image of the Tower of Refuge in Douglas Harbour.

It was expected to fetch £10,000-15,000.