http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ace-value.html

Rare bank notes once deemed worthless are set to sell for a staggering $5.7 million after they were found in a U.S. bankers' drawer.

The notes, which date back to the 1880s and total $3,500 in the old money, are now tipped to sell at auction for 1,700 times their face value.

They have miraculously survived the 130 years in mint condition and one is among the first ever bank notes to be printed in the U.S. and one of only two left in the world.

The currency includes three $1,000 notes and one $500 note. The rarest of the collection is an 1882 $500 gold certificate, among the first ever bank notes printed in America and expected to fetch $2.4 million alone.

The two 1882 $1,000 gold certificates and an 1890 $1,000 treasury note are estimated to sell for $1.07 million each.

Gold certificates were initially issued by banks as proof of a deposit of gold bullion in their vaults but went on to become forms of money in their own right.

They circulated as money until 1933 when the U.S. government banned private gold ownership and withdrew the certificates from circulation, making them worthless.

Incredibly, from that point on it was illegal to own gold certificates until 1964 when the government lifted its ban.