BANK OF ENGLAND PAPER.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1197, 6 February 1885, Page 3

BANK OF ENGLAND PAPER.

The paper use' l for printing the Bank of England notes has always been made by the Portal family, whoso ancestor came over from Bordeaux after the revodtiou of the Edict of Nantes, bringing with him rhe art o' making tine paper, which, like those of silk weaving and dyeing scarlet, was up to that time unknown in England. Except by burglary, it is absolutely impossible to 1 obtain a scrap of the beautifully watermarked paper produced at the mill at Laverstokc, What constitutes tiie main safeguard of the hank is the “ water,” or, more properly, the wire mark—that transparent design which can be instantly detected when the paper is held up bctwe m I the eye and the light The largest amount of a banknote in circulation m 1827 was 1 LIOOO. It is said that two notes for ’ Idoo,ooo each, and two for L 50.000 each ■ wjre once engraved and issued. A bu‘cher,

I who had amus-e- an immense for uun in Iw is lime, went one ilay with on -of ch- se | LSU.OfiO notes to a private banker, asking fo ■ the loan of LSOUO, and wishing to de posit the big note as security in the bankers bands, saying he had kept it for years. The LSOOO was handed over, but the banker hinted at the same time, to the butch r, tho folly of hoarding such ai large aura, and losing the interest. “Wo'y true, sir,” replied the butcher. “ but I likes to look on’t so very well that I have t’other one of the same hind at home.” An eccentric gentleman in London framed a bank post-bill for £30,000, and exhibited it for five years m one of his sitting-roams. The fifth year he died, when the picture was at-once taken and cashed by his heirs. Some years ago, at a nobleman’s bouse near Hyde Park a dispute arose about a certain passage of Scripture, and a Dean who was present denying that there was any such text, a Bible was called for. When it was opened a marker was found in it, which, on examination, proved to be a bank post-bill for £40.000. It might possibly have been placed there as a reproach to the son, who, perhaps, did not consult the Bibie as often as his mother could wish.