LIFE OF A BANK NOTE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XV, Issue 872, 22 November 1906, Page 20

LIFE OF A BANK NOTE.

In a London Police Court recently, Mr Ernest Codrington, an inspector o' banknotes at the Bank of England, was called as a witness, and in his evidence furnished the following table showing the average “life” of various Bank of England notes :— £$ note 62 days. £lO note 58 days. £2O to £lOO note 30 days. £2OO to £5OO note ... 11 days. ,£l,OOO note 55 days. “It may seem strange at first sigh",” said an official of the Bank of England

to a representative of the “Over-Seas,” “that a £l,OOO note should have a much longer ‘life’ than a no e, and one practically equal to that of a £5 ; but here is the probable explanation : Five ■ pound notes are in great demand. They are passed from holder to holder, and do not return to the bank for some little time. Notes of from .£2OO to .£5OO are more quickly returned, as on account of their value they are soon paid into a bank, and so find their way here. Of course, as soon as a note is returned 10 the Bank of England its life is at an end, for it is destroyed. “On the other hand, £l,OOO /iotes are almost exclusively issued to other banks, where they are held as a reserve, and some time may elapse before they are paid out to customers. “It is true that if a note never comes back the bank profits to hat amount; but we can never tell when these so-called missing notes may be presented, and whenever presented they must be cashed.”