A MYSTERY buyer has pocketed a piece of monetary history after buying a 177-year-old fiver for £216.

The £5 note was issued by the long since-defunct Abingdon Bank in 1839 and defied the test of time to appear at auction on Tuesday.

Despite the now-measly value branded on the yellowed note, the buyer has shaved a few pounds off its historical worth – at the time it could have been equivalent to about £220 in today's money.

Monika Kruber, a banknote expert at Spink auction house in London, where the lot was sold, said: "There is such a huge variety of banknotes and they can often have a nice little story behind them – it's like having a piece of history.

"The majority of bank notes were simply black and white. The coloured ones are often very faded but this one retained a good colour and had survived relatively well."

Although she could not name the buyer, she said: "Many collectors look at the names of the businessmen who set up the bank, maybe they might be a relative or have lived in the same area for generations."

In the 30 years that Abingdon Bank traded it issued just 1,844 £5 notes, as only the wealthiest townspeople could afford to use them.

Eight years after the auctioned fiver was printed and signed by the bank's owner Henry Knapp, it went bust and the money became worthless.

Jackie Smith, honourary archivist at Abingdon Town Council, said: "The Knapps lived in Northcourt in Abingdon and were extremely well off.

"It was probably quite a sum back then if you look at what people were buying. People were leasing their house for about six and eight pence a year.

"There were huge repercussions locally when the bank went bust. The business community of Abingdon went through a bit of a slump."

According to nationalarchives.gov.uk, £5 in 1840 was equivalent to £220.50 in 2005 – the most recent date given.

Shailendra Bhandare, a banknote specialist at the Ashmolean Museum, said: "There was proliferation of the banks issuing notes in the 18th and 19th centuries. In our collection we have lots of private banknotes including from Banbury, Wantage, Burford and Abingdon.

"People needed wages and due to industry revolutions the supply of money mostly outstripped the demand. Most of them went bust when the Bank of England got more involved."

Dr Bhandare said he could envision the new £5 becoming collectable too, adding: "It's the first polymer so it's already got some sort of historical value.

"But people are obsessed by coins far more than banknotes. Personally I find notes far more interesting with their shape and colour."

The note was sold by the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland, which sold it to raise money for the Chartered Banker 2025 Foundation.

Spink sold an Abingdon Bank note in 2008 for £440, and another seven in 2012.