two very rare Polperro Bank notes have been bought at auction by the trustees of the village's Heritage Museum.

The notes will be put on display in the museum next Easter for people to view.

The banknotes were part of the David Kirch collection of English provincial bank notes which was auctioned at Spinks in London.

One is an issued £1 note signed by Zephaniah Job dated 1818 and the other an un-issued £5 note. One other £5 note is known to be in the County Museum in Truro but how many other notes are in private collections is unknown.

Zephaniah Job was born at St Agnes in 1750 and moved to Polperro in the early 1770s. He was an educated man and set up a school for the local community and also became an astute and wealthy businessman. He was also steward to the Trelawny estate in Pelynt.

In Polperro he is remembered as the 'Smugglers Banker'. Free trading was at its zenith during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, especially during the time of the Napoleonic wars and Job put the 'trade' on a sound financial basis, organising cargoes with Guernsey businessmen, collecting monies due and arranging legal assistance when it was needed. The Polperro men flourished under his guidance.

He was also a money lender and in 1806 he obtained a banking licence and began issuing Polperro Bank notes in £1, £2 and £5 denominations. These were printed in London and payable by Christopher Smith Son & Co, one of the London merchant bankers he dealt with.

Job died suddenly in 1822 leaving behind a legacy as a fine businessman and a benefactor to Polperro.