Museum staff were stunned when a 200-year-old bank note was returned decades after it was stolen.

The ancient currency was sent hundreds of miles from the West Indies to the Padstow Museum in Cornwall.

It was stuffed in a white envelope dotted with colourful Caribbean stamps - but had no return address.

The enevlope contained a rare 200-year-old Padstow Bank £1 note stolen from the museum more than 30 years ago.

"The note was issued by the Padstow Bank of Thomas Rawlings in 1819 and I knew we had a note like that in the collection.

"So I got out my book and my magnifying glass and checked the note I had been sent with the one in he book about the museum which was published in the 1970s. It was the same note.

Mr Buckingham was aware the note had been reported as stolen from the museum in June 1984.

John said: '"I'm just very pleased that the note is back at the museum. It's important that it is back at the museum at last."

The note is a relic of Regency era Padstow and at the time would have been a sizeable sum of money.

Housemaids earned around £7 a year and unskilled labourers and fishermen in the harbour earned far less.

The note will be available to view when Padstow Museum reopens at Easter.

To read the complete article, see:
Incredibly rare bank note handed in bymystery person years after being stolen (www.plymouthherald.co.uk/incredibly-rare-bank-note-handed-in-by-mystery-person-years-after-being-stolen/story-30183119-detail/story.html)