The value of £1,000,000 was set at £78,300 but it had nothing to do with the banking crisis.

A rare £1m note was sold at auction to a private UK based collector yesterday for just under £80,000. The note, known as Number Eight and believed to be one of only two in existence, was valid for only six weeks after it was issued in August 1948.

It was one of only eight issued by the treasury in connection with Marshall Aid, the American plan for economic reconstruction in Europe after the Second World War.

The note was meant for official use only and six were destroyed after it was cancelled. The other two were given as souvenirs to the secretaries of the US and British treasuries.

The American note, 000007, was sold at Christie’s in 1991 for £23,000.

The British note, dated 30 August 1948, was given to E. E. Bridges, secretary to the treasury, whose signature it bears. But it left the family some years ago. The signature is now cancelled and the note stamped 6 October 1948, Bank of England.

Note 000008 was put up for auction by Bill Parkinson and had been expected to fetch between £35,000 and £40,000 at Spink in Bloomsbury. But competitive bidding brushed the forecast aside and it went for double its expected sale price.

The Number Eight note is dated 30 August 1948. It bears the signature of E. E. Bridges in the lower right hand corner and is cancelled over the signature and stamped 6 October 1948, Bank of England. It was listed by the Guinness Book of Records as being the highest denomination in private ownership.

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