RARE banknotes produced more than 100 years ago when Blackburn, Burnley and Pendle printed their own money are expected to fetch up to £300 each at auction.

Two black and white 19th century one pound notes, emblazoned with the words Blackburn Bank are proofs, which means they were produced for inspection before the notes went into mass production.

These notes – along with a Pendle Bank 20 shillings note and a Burnley 10 pound note, produced by the Craven Bank – are up for sale and will be auctioned at Spink in Bloomsbury, London, on Wednesday.

The Blackburn notes – described by Spink as ‘rare’ – are tipped to fetch between £200 and £300 each; the Pendle Bank note is expected to sell for between £100 and £140, while the Burnley 10 pound note is likely to fetch between £140 and £180.

In the late 1700s and throughout the 1800s, there were hundreds of privately-owned banks in England and Wales, all printing their own money because it was too difficult and dangerous to bring in large quantities of cash from London in the days before motorways and security firms.

Barnaby Faull, head of the banknotes department at Spink, said: “All towns and cities 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 many of these provincial banks went bust, their notes became completely worthless.”

But Blackburn Bank survived and flourished for more than a century.

It was founded in 1792 by two enterprising local businessmen named Cunliffe and Brooks – their family names appear on the notes coming up for sale.

And it was still trading in 1900 when it was taken over by Lloyds Bank which, in 1995, became Lloyds TSB.

The Blackburn, Craven and Pendle notes have been put up for sale by Jersey-based property tycoon, David Kirch, who is in his mid-70s and who was said to be Britain’s joint 751st richest man last year, alongside Robbie Williams, David Bowie and George Michael with a personal fortune of £100million.

Mr Kirch’s collection of English provincial banknotes, worth around £1million, was described by Mr Faull as ‘the best collection of English provincial banknotes by miles’.