Getting on the New York City subway when it opened in 1904 cost only a nickel, but one of only two known examples of a first guide to the Interborough Rapid Transit system is on sale for $12,000.

Starting Nov. 9, Martayan Lan Gallery in Manhattan will exhibit historical New York maps from as early as 1548, from Gastaldi’s edition of Ptolemy’s atlas — what is described as “the earliest acquirable map” to focus on the East Coast of North America, including Bermuda. The most recent map in the show, Bollmann’s bird’s-eye color lithograph of Midtown Manhattan, suggests the scale of the city’s skyscrapers and dates to 1964. Some of the items in the exhibition are for sale, but not all.

The 1904 subway map apparently was mailed to customers of Wanamaker’s department store. Another map that will be displayed, from 1909, includes all of the city’s subway and elevated train lines and major bridges and tunnels. The price: $25,000.

Also exhibited will be an 1822 map published by John Rangel Jr., the city surveyor, who plotted the Manhattan grid imposed by the 1811 Commissioners’ Plan (borrowed from a private collection) and a wall map from 1898 that is described as perhaps the earliest to depict the five boroughs consolidated into Greater New York. It’s listed at $12,000.