BANK-NOTES FROM THEIR BIRTH TO THEIR DEATH.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IV, Issue 188, 19 August 1864, Page 1 (Supplement)

BANK-NOTES FROM THEIR BIRTH TO THEIR DEATH.

[From Chambers' Journal.'] The paper upon which the notes of the Bank of England are printed is manufactured from the whitest and best of linen rags, by one firm at Laverstoke, in Hampshire. It is made in sheets sixteen inches long, and five inches wide, each being designed for the printing of two notes ; they are divided in the middle alter leaving the press ; therefore, every note issued by the bank of England has three rough or deckle edges, and one smooth edge. The paper and water mark has always been the great difficulty to makers of forged notes. The engraving has been successfully imitated, so much so that oven experts have been deceived by it; but spurious paper has never, up to the present time, stood test. In the recent robbery of bank-paper from the mills, which caused so much anxiety to the public, the forgers had an opportunity such as they never had before, and, it is to be hoped, never will have again ; yet even with this advantage they wore entirely unsuccessful. The paper appears to have been taken from the mill unsized, and the after-sizing was badly done, giving a dirty appearance to the notes ; in fact, to those whose duty it is to examine notes all day long, this appearance gave to these notes an uncomfortable, suspicious look.

A quantity of paper, enough for making about 990,000 notes, ia forwarded to London once a month } it is delivered to the bank-note paperofljce, where it is counted, and then handed to the printing-office. After passing through a machine which prints all but the numbers, dates, and signatures, it is returned to the paper-office ; in this transition state it is kept in store; as notes are required, it is again passed through a machine for completion; each sheet is then cut in half, as before stated, making two notes; they are counted, and carefully examined by cashiers, whose duty it is to reject all which are indistinctly printed, or are imperfect, for the Old Lady is very particular on this point; tied up in bundles of one hundred notes each, and five of these bundles in one, making a large bundle of five hundred UOtca. The average daily manufacture is about thirtyseven thousand notes, or seventy-four bundles of five hundred notes ; each bundle weighing one and a half pounds. The number of notes made in a year will be over eleven and a half milion, the paper weighing more thau fifteen tons. Books are printed at the bank, with a record of every note issued. Every note presented at the bank for payment is marked off these ledgers on the day following ; the date for payment being stamped on the note and in the ledger. Should a forged note by any chance be passed, the impostor would assuredly be turned out the following day, on reference to the ledger for posting it. About thirty-seven thousand notes are presented daily for payment; they are cancelled by having the signature torn away, and two holes, the size of gun-waddings, punched through the left baud corner of the note. Every such note is kept at the bank ten years ; and the boxes containing these notes, if placed end to end, would reach from the Bank to Kew Bridge, or more than nine miles. The authorities take pride in the fact, that should reference to any one of those notes be required, by furnishing the number, date, and amount, in ten minutes it would be placed before you. Two or three years since, some of my readers, while walking in the vicinity of the bank, may have noticed small flakes like snow descending, and become sensible of a smell something between that of a smouldering composition of candle aud burnt curl-paper. It was a holocaust to the Old Lady. What they saw and sniffed was all that remained of what had done duty for twenty millions or thereabouts. The notes are burned once a month, and the practice now is to place them in a brick furnace, the smoke from which passes through water, avoiding all unpleasantness. The Old Lady has some curiosities in the way of bank-notes. There is a note for one million ; a note for £555, dated 1699, bearing several receipts on the front for part-payment, as at that time payment on account could be taken; a twen-ty-five pound note, which was in circulation one hundred and eleven years—this amount, at compound interest for the time, would amount to £6,000; a £I,OOO note, with which Lord Cochrane paid his fine. Lord Cochrane has given vent to his feelings, by writing on the back of the note as follows: —“ My health having suffered from loiig aud close confinement, and my oppressors being resolved to deprive me of liberty or life, I submit to robbery to save murder, in the hopes of living to bring the delinquents to justice.” “ Crated Chamber, King's Bencli Prison. July 3, 1815.” J Bank-notes are subject to many mishaps .- they are buried, burned, drowned, washed to pieces, and eaten. Eot many years since a labourer, in taking down a hedgerow, came across a small box buried in the soil. Upon examining the contents they were found to be bank notes, the proceeds of a robbery, which had occurred so long previous as to be almost forgotten. It is supposed that thieves being hard pressed by officers of the law hid tlie box where it was found, and were perhaps taken and hanged for some other crime, and so their secret died with them. 11 is not an uncommon occurrence for notes to be thrown into the tiro with waste paper, and burned. Sailors, who, by the by, appear to have a penchant for pipe-lights worth five pounds apiece, are not theo only persons who burn banknotes ; they are frequently used to light pipes, candles, gas, &c. Notes have been blown into a river, and although the song has it: — For a guinea it will sink, But a one-pound note will float, five-pound notes will not. Observe that man with the rueful contenanee, standing at the window of the Secretary’s office ; ho is exhibiting what appears to be a pellet of paper, such a 4 one as when school-boys wo used to jam into our popguns—pellets like unto this one would have made them “ ten-pounders,” for it is a ten-pound note, and has only been sent to the wash in a waiscoat pocket. The small lump will be placed in careful hands, and will be delicately manipulated. If the number and date can be decipherable, the note will at once be paid. A wealthy grazier, on his return from market one day in summer, took out his well filled poc-ket-book to count the contents ; placing them on the drawing-room table, which stood between two windows, he was astonished to see a twenty-pound note blown out of the room. He rushed to the window only in time to see the note disappearing down the throat of his daughter’s pet lamb. The animal was killed directly, and the note taken from its stomach and sent to London, with a statement of the circumstances. It was of course much discoloured; but as it was “ all there,” the grazier got his twenty pounds. When a note is irrecoverably lost, the usual practice is—if the note be under one hundred pounds —to make the loser wait five years, after which time application for payment will be entertained. But, with notes of one hundred pounds and upwards, a sum equal to the amount lost is invested in consols, in the names of tiro Governor and Company of the Bank of England, for twentv years. During this time, the dividends, as they" accrue’ are paid to the loser; and at the end of the term’ the stock is transferred into his name. * It may bo fairly said, from the above remarks, that the Old Lady is as liberal as ia consistent with safety to herself and protection to the public.