A competition has been launched in which contestants pay to guess the value of the contract, with the winner keeping the highly prized document.

The fab four's prospective manager, Brian Epstein, offered to sign the band after watching them perform in Liverpool's Cavern Club.

John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr signed the contract in 196

The contract bears a mistake where Lennon wrote his name in the wrong part and it was also signed by some band members' parents, due to their young ages.

Epstein spotted the band in the Cavern in 1961 and the contract was signed the following year. The group catapulted up the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

The contract has only changed hands a couple of times over the decades and was acquired for The Imagine Corporation at Christie's auction house.