John Lennon’s son Julian has announced that he is set to auction some unique Beatles memorabilia as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), including a one-of-a-kind digital copy of Paul McCartney’s original notes for Hey Jude.

Julian Lennon is the eldest son of the late musician and served as the inspiration for the hit song, which was released in 1968, the same year when Julian’s father left his mother Cynthia, for Yoko Ono.

McCartney went to visit the lad, who was just five year’s old at the time at the Lennon family home in Surrey and came up with the tune and germ of the lyrics for Hey Jude in the car.

Originally titled Hey Jules, it was meant to comfort the youngster in the wake of his parents’ divorce.

The notes show McCartney structuring the song into four distinct sections. It starts with “voice and piano” and ends with ‘LONG SLOW FADE’.

Bidding for the notes starts at $30,000 (£22,267), with buyers told: “This NFT is a one of one edition of the physical item and does not include the physical item.” It does, however, come with an “exclusive audio narration” by Julian Lennon.

Other objects being sold as NFTs are three Gibson guitars and two John Lennon outfits: the Afghan coat he wore in the film Magical Mystery Tour and at the launch party for the album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band; and a black cape he wore in the film Help!

Speaking about the auction, which is due to take place on February 7 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Julian Lennon said that he hoped the sale would be “a unique way to continue Dad’s legacy.”

Adding to Variety: “I’ve been collecting these personal items for about 30 years, and I was getting a bit fed up with them being locked away in a vault, where I’ve had to keep them because I didn’t want them to get damaged.”

Part of the proceeds will go to Julian Lennon’s philanthropic White Feather Foundation, which raises funds for “Indigenous, environmental, humanitarian and clean water projects”.

The idea of NFTs is that buyers become the owner of a unique digital item, rather than the unique physical item.

NFTs were originally introduced in 2014, but since 2021 have really begun to take off over the past 12 months.

The most valuable NFT sale of 2021 was The First 5000 Days, a digital collage by Beeple, the name used by the American digital artist Mike Winkelmann, that was auctioned for $69.4m in March.