BANK NOTES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIII, Issue X, 8 September 1894, Page 229

BANK NOTES.

Bank of England notes are the only legal tender (except gold) for payments beyond £2 in amount; were this rule done away with every payment made in the country would, as regards payments, depend upon the stability of the Bank or other concern making payment in its own notes or promises to pay. Since the 6th of May. 1844, no new bankers in the United Kingdom have been allowed to issue notes, and any of those then existing which have discontinued their issues are not allowed to resume them. Until 1759 the smallest notes issued by the Bank were of £2O value ; by an Act of 1775 the minimum limit was fixed at twenty shillings, two years later increased to £5. Forgeries of the notes have from time to time been attempted ; in 1773 the punishment for copying the water mark was death. Great care and expense are exercised in the preparation of the

notes, which are said to cost from 51 to 6 I each for manufacture. The paper is specially made from pure linen rags, each sheet sufficing for two notes. The water mark on the paper is specially designed. Attempts at forgery in this direction have always been made by hot pressing; and, apart from the peculiar crisp feel of the paper, a ready test is to damp the note, when the water mark so made on a forged note will at once disappear. The ink is indelible, the design plain and difficult to forge, and, in printing, the machine automatically registers the quantity produced. Other banks pay a tax on each note issued, the Bank cf England a compounded amount of £70,000 a year. So directly each note returns to the bank, there being no inducement to re issue it, and it being desirable to maintain the original crispness and freshness of its notes, the bank destroys them on their return. Consequently. many notes, being at once repaid, are very shortlived. The largest amount of a note in current circulation is £l,OOO, but it is said that notes for £50,000 and £lOO,OOO have been engraved and issued. After the expiration of forty years from their date of issue, all notes are treated as lost or destroyed, and are written off the books of the bank, which so makes a profit. But any bona fide holder possessing such a note, and proving bis title, can nevertheless demand payment for it. The finder of a lost note who may use it is liable to prosecution as for theft. It is usual to stop the payment for lost notes, but this really only gives facility for tracing through whose hands it has passed ; for anyone taking in the way of trade and giving value for a lost note becomes possessed of its value, and he who has lost it becomes the loser, with his remedy, if he can trace the finder, for making use of the note.