A VISIT TO THE BANK OF ENGLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6667, 31 March 1883, Page 2 (Supplement)

A VISIT TO THE BANK OF ENGLAND.

A wkitkr in a conteoipoi ary gives the following interesting facts of a visit paid to '' The Old .Lady of Thre.ulneedle-street — In making a tour of iusp ction the officials give you a little printed slip, from which it appears that in the cour.su of five yeare the paid notes amount to 77,745,000 iu :iamt)cr, and that they fill 115,400 boxes, which, if placed side by aid--, would reach miles, if the notes Were placed in & pile they would reach to a height of 5* miles, or if joined end to eud th'-y would form a ribb -n 1 *2,445 miles long. Their superficial extent is said to be rather les3 than that of llydo Park. Tli-*y weigh over tons, and their original value was over .±11,750,026,000. The greatest of rogues might be iuohned to find some comfort in the extent and intricacy of such a store of old paper. Of course, however, they are most systematically arranged, ami any note of the seventy-seven millions may be pounced upon with the utmost celerity unci precision. At the end of five yjars these old nutes are thrown into a furnace specially construct d for the purpose, and burned. It ia a curious fact, however, that uo firm in texture is the paper of a genuine Bunk of England note that burning alone can hardly destroy it. The authorities have ia a little glazed frame the remnants of a note which was in the great tire of Chicago. Though completely charred and black, the paper still holds together, and th; printing of the note is ssid to bo sufficiently legible to establish its genuineness and to warrant its being cashed. There are somi other notes hero cash'd after having gone down with the Eurytlice a few years ago, and reduced to little better than pulp. Indeed, the scraps and fragments which sometimes come into the bank to bo cashi d have a really ridiculous appearance. On the occasion of a receut visit, for instance, the officials had under examination a number of fragments of discoloured paper, none much bigger than a eixpenc", and when put together presenting to the unskilled eye not the slightest resemblance to a note. And yet it was pretty confidently asserted t v .at the pap-r would be cashed. It is beneath the dignity of the Bar.k of England to tak", or even toappeirto tak», advantage of accidents to th. ir not;s, and, if there i» any possibility of establishing the identity of one of them, it is aure to be duly honoured. Even where a note io entirely destroyed proper evidence of the i fact of destruction will be accepted and pay- I ment made. A lost note will in some cases be paid, and there is on-- occasion recorded upon which the liberal attitude of the directors iu a case cf thia kind involved theu in a loss of £.'IO,OOO. A bank director declared that lie had lost a note for that amount, and, upon hia giving au indemnity for tho sum in the event of the note ever turning up, the money was paid to him, Many years aftsr his death an unknown ; porson presented the missing note. The pap-r was undeniably good, and the hank had uo alternative but to cash it, as it was ' payable to bearer 011 demand, and, as the heirs of the bank director who had lost it repud ated all liability, the money could not l>e recovered. The collection of forced no*es which have ben stopped at the counters and have beoti accumul ited in a kind of scrapbook is very interesting even to those wlio have 110 intention of embarking iu this line of enterprise. To thu great fraternity of forgers— said to have been entirely evolved , ao far as hank notes are concerned since tho : >ear 175S—probably no volume extant would j afford half the interest of this curious collec. , tion. (