An elderly man from Yongkang, Zhejiang Province allegedly tried to buy a train ticket with a 500-yuan note printed during the Republic of China period (1912-1949), media reported Monday.

The 80-year-old man surnamed Ying expressed disbelief that the ticket seller would not accept the currency for a 12.5-yuan ticket to nearby Lishui, also in Zhejiang. "It's a 500 yuan bill! Why did the seller refuse to take it?" asked Ying.

The note, printed in 1943 and bearing the portrait of former-president Sun Yat-sen, has not been legal tender since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

A 500-yuan note like Ying's, printed by the Central Reserve Bank of China, can sell for hundreds of today's yuan on the collector's market, said the report.

The railway employee called police after Ying kept insisting the expired currency be accepted.

Officers said Ying, who had never traveled far from home, also possessed a 100-yuan bill.

This one, however, had Mao Zedong on it.

Qianjiang Evening News