A Bermuda-based Scottish soldier's letter to an Edinburgh solicitor has fetched 9,000 ($13,975) in a recent auction -- 151 years after it was sent.

The news came yesterday in an article by Gavin Duncan of the Centre Press Agency in Glasgow.

Private D. McKenzie's letter, in which he begs for help in getting released from the Black Watch Highland Regiment based at Ireland Island, is post-stamped July 5, 1848.

But the soldier's plea held little interest to the anonymous American collector who purchased the item in an auction for almost double the valuation price of 5,000, noted Mr. Duncan.

Instead he was more interested in the rare crown circle stamp, a precursor to the modern day postage stamp which validated the letter and that the letter was sent from Bermuda.

Stamp expert David Parson, of the auction house Christie's in London, said: "Very few soldiers at this time wrote home and even fewer of those have survived. But it has a crown circle and the combination of a rare mark on a rare letter makes it worth more to collectors.

"There are very few examples of either the crown stamp or soldiers' letters from Bermuda left, so it had everything going for it.

"It was very attractive to a number of collectors. We expected it to go for a good price, but our estimates did not expect it to go for this much.'' The letter would have cost Pte. McKenzie one old penny to send to the offices of a George Street solicitor in 1848.

In his letter he asked the solicitor to send him 30 so he could buy himself out of the army.