A collection of more than 5,000 car tax discs is expected to fetch £10,000 at auction.

The compilation includes a disc for every year they were issued – 1921 to 2014.

There is also a disc for every month from 1990 to 2015.

The collection was put together by Richard Hughes, 62, from Berkshire.

He plans to buy a classic car with the proceeds of the sale.

Picture: Richard Hughes

Richard said:

“I’ve always been a car buff and had many classic cars over the years, especially from the 1960s and ’70s.

“Back in the 1980s I bought a Ford Escort and when I was emptying out the tax disc holder there were 20 discs in there.

“They have so much information on them I decided to keep hold of them and bought them into work one day to put on my desk.

“It started from there. Family and friends would give me their discs to help me with my weird hobby.

“I then began visiting scrapyards and the dealers would let me take old discs from the vehicles as they were just old bits of paper.

“I would also visit autojumbles to swap discs I didn’t have with other collectors and over the years my collection grew and grew to 5,000 discs.

“But now they have stopped issuing them I feel it is the right time to sell them and spend the money towards a new classic car, perhaps an MGB Roadster or Triumph Stag.”

Pascal McNamara, of Wokingham Auctions, said:

‘It is being sold as a whole collection. It is a very niche market, but you would think a motor museum would be interested in buying them.

“They are all in albums and are in good condition.

“Some of the rarer discs are obviously some of the early ones.”

Paper tax discs were introduced in 1921.

They were displayed on vehicle windscreens.

They were dropped in 2014 – saving the Government £10 million a year.

Officials now check cars through the DVLA data base.