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Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1549, 10 February 1874, Page 110

Bank of England Notes.—The following is from an article entitled "The Old LadyofThreadneedle Street," published in the City Press:—Another of the wonders of the place is the cellar in which the bank notes are kept seven years after they have done their duty, and have returned from'circulation. The signature is torn up, they are all tied up together, and stowed away down here at the rate of 46.000 a day. At first they were kept 20 years, then the number was reduced to 10, and then to 7. '• So great has been the increase in this department that whereas 40 years ago 20,00.0 notes were deemed a heavy day's work, now twice thainumber is considered a light one. In the looms above, the system of registering .these bank notes, is .most admirable. A blunder seems impossible,. Each note can be identified. By reference to the registers, the clerks can at once tell on what day in what year it was paid in, and from whom it was received. To do this a great number of books are kept, and a great number of clerks are required, who are all day long entering the career of the various notes which come under their care. Amongst other curiosities in the cellar in which these notes are stored away, is one for a million of money, with the signature of Abraham Newland. It is a very simple affair, and, apparently, very easy to be forged. It is a promise on a plain bit of notepaper, to pay on demand a million., The modern bank note by the side of /it is a very finished work of art indeed. Here dlso they show a warrantor £25, which had been stored away, pnd never presented for payment till at compound interest it represented as much as £6OOO. The Bank notes as they come in are burnt, but at different tijiriesj fcn'd as many are burnt as correspond with the new notes that are issued. > As regards the issue, the notes are sent into the world, generally inbundles containing five hundred each. The paper on which they are printed is manufactured at Messrs Portal's mills'at Laverstock, Hants. 13,785 reams are .usually supplied to the bank yearly at a cost of 16s fld per ream of 600 pieces of paper, which is generally kept fori six month before taken into use. The dies from which the water mark is made, as well as the plates used in printing and machinery—all of the highest character—are placed under the joint care of the chief printer, Mr Coe, and the engineer, Mr Hensman. It is the chief cashier who regulates the quantity of .notes required to printed, t r.:.i*£ i ■ >' *