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The Bank of England, which is now the central bank of the United Kingdom, British Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories, has issued banknotes since 1694. In 1921 the Bank of England gained a legal monopoly on the issue of banknotes in England and Wales, a process that started with the Bank Charter Act 1844, when the ability of other banks to issue notes was restricted.
The chartering of banks and administrative control over the issuance of National Bank Notes were the responsibility of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. [2] A 2 percent tax on state bank notes was authorized in 1864 to speed conversion to the new system, only to be increased the next year to 10 percent, then 20 percent.
Over the 18th century, far fewer banknotes were circulating in England compared to the boom of bank notes in the 19th century; because of this, improved note-making techniques were not considered a compelling issue. In the 18th century, banknotes were produced mainly by copper-plate engraving and printing, and they were
Main articles: Banknotes of the pound sterling and Bank of England note issues. Note: The description of banknotes given here relates to notes issued by the Bank of England. Three banks in Scotland and four banks in Northern Ireland also issue notes, in some or all of the denominations: £1, £5, £10, £20, £50, £100.
These banknotes were a form of representative money which could be converted into gold or silver by application at the bank. Since banks issued notes far in excess of the gold and silver they kept on deposit, sudden loss of public confidence in a bank could precipitate mass redemption of banknotes and result in bankruptcy.
Since there were many types of Confederate notes as well as notes issued by the states of the Confederacy, and since banks could issue their own notes, counterfeiting was a major problem for the Confederacy. Many of these contemporary counterfeits are identifiable today and they can be as valuable to a collector as a real note.
There were three general types of money in the colonies of British America: the specie (coins), printed paper money and trade-based commodity money. [2] Commodity money was used when cash (coins and paper money) were scarce. Commodities such as tobacco, beaver skins, and wampum, served as money at various times in many locations. [3]
Notes of the Bank of Singapore, Michigan. Wildcat banking was the issuance of paper currency in the United States by poorly capitalized state-chartered banks.These wildcat banks existed alongside more stable state banks during the Free Banking Era from 1836 to 1865, when the country had no national banking system.