TWO hundred years ago it was the equivalent of seven months' wages - but you couldn't spend it outside Lancashire.

Now an historic one pound note, owned by a private collector, is due to fetch around £600 when it goes up for auction in London.

The note was printed by local bank Cunliffes, Brooks & Co at a time during the late 1700s and 1800s when towns across England were allowed to print their own money.

Convoys of cash were prone to plundering by highwaymen or could take days to arrive so it was quicker and safer to set up money printing presses locally.

The bank which produced the valuable black and white provincial banknote was owned by John Cunliffe and opened in 1792 on Old Bank Street, relocating to the corner of Church Street and Darwen Street in 1878.

Nick Harling, keeper of social history at Blackburn museum, said: "Mr John Cunliffe was registered in Blackburn in 1824. He had a house on King Street, just round the corner from his bank.

"There was also a branch of the bank in London. Privately-produced bank notes were generally used within that town or region, so Blackburn notes were unlikely to have been used any further away than Preston or Manchester."

He added: "Cunliffes was one of the earliest banks in the town. The unusual thing is that the note has Blackburn Bank on it, when in fact there was another bank going by that name so perhaps it means a bank in Blackburn."

The note - made at a time when a pound was the average weekly wage - is a proof and was never actually in circulation, which accounts for it being very rare' and in extremely fine condition,' according to auctioneers Spink in London. Barnaby Faull, director of the firm's banknotes department, said: "All towns and cities used to issue their own banknotes. When many of these local banks went bust, their notes became completely worthless."

Cunliffes, Brooks & Co flourished until 1900 when it was taken over by Lloyds Bank. In 1921 the Bank of England gained a monopoly on producing money and the private presses closed.

The current world record for an English provincial banknote is £3,335 for an 1829 Wirksworth and Ashbourne Bank five pound note from Derbyshire.

Auctioneers Spink are now offering a free valuation to Telegraph readers with similar antique banknotes.

Barnaby Faull said: "Banknotes were sometimes slipped into old family Bibles for safekeeping, so that it is always a good place to begin the search."