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The History of Great Britain Banknotes

The History of Great Britain Banknotes

Part One, Treasury Notes 1914 - 1928

The Chancellor of the day, Lloyd George, just a few hours after the midnight Declaration of War, touched on the need to preserve the country's gold. The issue of notes for one pound and for ten shillings were to circulate "As fully as sovereigns and half-sovereigns are current and shall be legal tender in the United Kingdom for the payment of any amount".

Why not the Bank of England, with all their experience and expertise? The Bank felt that large numbers of low-value notes wouldn't be "safe" unless they were printed on special hand-made paper. This meant a relatively slow output. The Chancellor wanted them NOW. His announcement in Parliment was on August 5th; Waterloo Brothers and Layton provided the first of the new one pound notes on August 7th! Obviously, there must have been earlier discussions and preparations for such a speedy result. Possibly, a very fine Crystal Ball "revealed" the inevitability of The Great War.

An astonishing achievement, carried out over a single week-end, saw the printing of a vast number of new notes. They were printed on ungummed postage stamp paper and carried the G.R. cypher watermark.

Bearing the signature of the SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY John Bradbury the pound notes were printed in back and, appearing just one week later, the ten shilling notes were in red. Both notes were the same size and were printed on only one side of paper. It was advisable to have all your notes face upwards before counting. Many found face down, it is said, were thrown away as scrap paper! Thomas De La Rue and Company assisted Waterloo Brothers and Layton to produce the ten shilling note.

Almost at once, a second series was devised. This time, the banknote paper was used and a much more elaborate watermark incorporated: the Royal Cypher, value, rose, thistle, shamrock, and daffodil. Still on one side only and in the same colours, some sorting assistance was provided by varying the sizes, a little, between the two values. Included in this second series is the issue of:
THE DARDENELLES CAMPAIGN.

Third issuse "Bradbury's", chiefly in brown (ё1) and green (10/-) speedily followed. Both sides were printed and the "typical" British banknote was established.

The orginal purpose of the Treasury notes was to gather in the gold. So successful was the exercise that silver was targeted and notes were prepared for five shillings (5/-), half-a-crown (2/6) and even one shilling (1/-). Fear of runaway inflation through notes unbacked by real assets lead to the destrcution of most of these.

Part Two, Bank of England Notes 1694 - 1996

There were notes even before the Bank of England came into existance in 1694. Gentlemens' agreements in writing were promises (promissory notes) to re-imburse whoever eventually presented the notes:
"Thus a note from A to B promising to pay ё20 for some ship(ment) would be used by B to pay C for corn. Then A would pay C instead (of B) the original amount of money".
From D.M. Miller's "Bank of England and treasury notes 1694 - 1970
D.M. Miller also tells how notes for despatch to London were first cut in half and the two halves sent by seperate stage coaches to defeat the highwayman. Provided both consignments survived the coach trip, the notes were re-joined , encashed and cancelled. The cancellation was re-inforced by punching or cutting a hole to prevent re-presentation.

Thr Bank was particularly upset be attempts to forge its notes.. Simply being "caught in possession" meant certain transportation. This was harsh when one considers that some forgers were skilled enough to fool bank cashiers. There were so many prosecutions, however, that jurors ignored even the most damning evidence because the punishment was considered too severe. The Bank, itself, later endeavoured to ease the situation by arranging for the convict's family to accompany him, and by ensuring that they had some cash.

Knowingly possessing a forged note is still an offence. Sending a note to the bank for verification ("Is this an Operation Bernhard note?") will result in their issusing a Memorandum of Detention, if the notes proves to be counterfeit, and then it will be destroyed. The Bank might well considered that forgeries of notes that are no longer legal tender offer no threat, but in the case of the Nazi forgeries it cannot be expected to forgive that massive affront to itself or the considerable damage intended against the whole British economy.

By 1725, there were notes in the range ё20, ё30, etc., to ё100, ё200, ё300, ё400, ё500 and ё1,000. Notes for ё10, ё15 and ё25 were issued between 1759 and 1765, but none for under ё10. Provincial banks and, even, tradesmen started issuing notes for any sum: in the extreme for one penny! Notes under ё5 were eventually prohibited (except in Scotland), but it was too late. Notes issued without sufficient backing assets leads to bankrucptcy. Over 100 banks met this fate, and a further 300 eventually closed.

Prosperity brought about by the efforts to pursue the wars with France caused a massive revival of little banks until their number exceeded 700. When war with France was drawing to a close, all the "steam" went out of the economy and customers found they needed the substance (gold) rather than the promise (notes). Hundreds of banks collapsed and brought even the Bank of England "to its knees".

It was found that many would have survived if they could have called-up their cash reserves in time. To remove that difficulty, the Bank of England opened braches to shorten the lines of communication. Birmingham, Belfast, Bristol, Cardiff, Gloucester, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Southampton and Swansea.

These three were written by hand. Amounts could be and sum whatsoever. On a ё20 note, the owner could draw ё10, have this written in, and retain the note.
From Richards Collectors Banknotes

A List of Bank of England Chief Cashiers

Back to Banknote Home Page

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Last Updated 22/03/1996