First European paper money up at auction in Spink in New York

Plastic money has been a bone of contention recently thanks to the strange revelation that the new UK £5 notes include animal fat. But one day the polymer notes will surely be as normal and accepted as the existing paper examples, assuming physical money has not all but disappeared anyway by then.

Three hundred and fifty years ago, not only was London burning down in the Great Fire, but paper not…

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