A 200-YEAR-OLD banknote, issued at a time when towns still printed their own money, failed to live up to its expected sale price at auction.

Expectation was high that the one guinea note, made in Darlington, would fetch up to £150 when it went under the hammer in London - but it eventually sold for £92.

The note, produced by the now-defunct Darlington Bank on September 1, 1814, was sold by a private collector at Spink auctioneers.

Banknote expert at Spink, Caroline Weiner, said: "We were pleased with the price we got. It was a good example, but notes like this only really generate interest in their town of origin."

The note is believed to be linked to Darlington's Hollingsworth's Bank, owned by G Lewis Hollingsworth, which went out of business in the year the guinea was issued.

It features the names Mowbray, Hollingsworth, Wetherall, Shield, Boultan and Co, local businessmen who acted as guarantors for the sum.

A Bank of England spokesman said the note was the equivalent of about £35 in today's money.