A doctor in Florida who tragically died of coronavirus complications in January has left his family a baseball card collection worth $20m (£14m).

Dr Thomas Newman, a 73-year-old neurologist, had been collecting sports cards and memorabilia for over four decades before he passed away in January, vintage memorabilia auction site Memory Lane Inc said.

Now, his family has discovered that the rare stash is worth millions, with Babe Ruth items dating back to a 1916 Sporting News rookie card featuring in the collection.

"One of the 1933 Babe Ruth cards in this collection is the finest known of its kind and we expect it to break the record of $5.2 million for any sports card,” JP Cohen, president of the California auction house said.

He added: “Prices for rare, historic items have exploded in the collectibles market.”

The site, which specialises in sports auctions, said the collection also includes a near-perfect 1952 Mickey Mantle rookie card which could sell for more than $1m (£707,000).

Dr Newman’s widow, Nancy Newman, explained that "no one enjoyed collecting more than Tom” and said that the doctor “jokingly called his cards his ‘paper babies’.”

She said: “It gave him such pleasure. The only reason he would ever sell a card was if he had acquired the same card in a higher grade.”

The vast assortment also boasts Hall of Fame players including Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig, Honus Wagner, Ted Williams, and Cy Young, the release said.

According to CNN, the collection was so large it filled an 18-foot U-Haul truck when Mr Cohen went to retrieve it.

The doctor had stored some of his collection in his Tampa medical offices, with one room being filled with still-unopened cards from the 1980s.

Professional Sports Authenticator, the world’s largest sports collectibles certification company, has authenticated the collection, which and sports fans will be able to bid on from June 21.