A 1920s Australian five shilling note is primed to sell for around $53,000 in a November 21-24 sale at Noble Numismatics in Sydney.

Australia produced the five shilling notes during the first world war 

These notes were originally produced in huge numbers from 1914 onwards, following a run on silver that made minting five shilling coins prohibitively expensive.

But when the value of silver plummeted, the government ordered the notes to be destroyed.

Jim Noble, owner of Noble Numismatics, told News.com.au: “The only other time they destroyed a lot of notes (was when) they destroyed 1000-pound notes in the 1960s.”

Please sign up to our free newsletter to receive exciting news about coin and banknote auctions.