Haarlem council is trying to trace the holders of around 100 perpetual bonds issued between 1769 and 1818 to support the city’s poor, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Tuesday.

The bonds were originally issued to raise funds for public welfare and are marked Ter dienste der Armen (For the service of the poor). Their nominal value ranges from 25 to 1,000 guilders, with annual interest of 2.5% or 3.5%, which the city still pays out.

The council has paid about €500 in interest a year over the past eight years but processing, printing, and paying out the interest is too costly and labour-intensive, officials have decided.

Not everyone is happy the bonds will be taken out of circulation. “There are not many of these centuries-old bonds left, just some issued by old waterboards in the 17th century,” Wim Wiegel, a former trader and owner of one of the bonds, told the Financieele Dagblad. “In the United States, collectors would pay a fortune for them.”

Haarlem council said it is aware of the historical value of the bonds but said that they may be “safer in an archive than on a bookshelf in someone’s home”.

Bonds that are not handed in by December 31 will no longer be subject to interest, but bondholders have another three years to hand them in.