The photo shows the defective one hundred yuan note with a red vertical curve of 3 millimeters on the portrait of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong. [Photo: Chongqing Evening news]

A defective one hundred yuan note with an extra line on it was valued at around one million yuan at auction houses, the Chongqing Evening news reports.

The bank note was provided by a resident in Southwest China's Chongqing municipality, who got it when he received his wages three years ago.

The note printed in 1999 has a red vertical curve of 3 millimetres on the portrait of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong.

After the resident posted the photo of the note online recently, many private collectors got in touch with him, proposing a price at 300,000 to one million yuan.

An auction house even valued the note at 1.5 million yuan after a preliminary identification.

Defective bank notes usually refers to note with omission, folding and misprints in the process of producing it.

Defective notes are not allowed to be circulated on the market, while the collection of them has become a popular classification.