ANCHORAGE, Alaska—This isn't just any old $5 bill. A collector paid almost $247,000 for the rare, century-old note.

The 1905 bill from the First National Bank of Fairbanks, Alaska, sold at a Thursday auction by Dallas-based Heritage Auctions.

Heritage spokesman Dustin Johnston declined to name the buyer, saying only that the bill's new owner lives in the lower 48.

The bill was presented in 1905 to Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, the namesake of the Alaska city and Theodore Roosevelt's No. 2.

The bill has been in the family's possession since. Charles W. Fairbanks IV of California, the vice president's grandson, recently decided to auction it.

Auction officials had expected the bill to fetch between $200,000 and $300,000. Johnston says it was one of just four notes of its kind.