FIVE POUND NOTE WITH A HISTORY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 100, 23 May 1941, Page 8

FIVE POUND NOTE WITH A HISTORY

T is only an old charred five pound note, the number and inscription barely decipherable. It is well over a hundred years old, and few who have inspected it where it lies carefully preserved under glass in the Bank of England in London, know why such value is attached to it. The. note is, in fact, one of the bank’s most cherished possessions, for it tells of a financial obligation faithfully honoured, and of much more than five pounds’ worth of joy and comfort brought into the lives of a humble London couple, long since dead. Soon after the opening of the bank, so the story goes, a frail old man by the name of Matthew Jacob brought to an official the charred remains of a five pound note which had accidentally been blown into his fireplace, and of which little had been left recognisable. But Martha, his wife, had pointed out that the Bank of England had promised to redeem that note, and surely the bank would keep its promise. The official »glanced at the remains of the note, and was about to dismiss Matthew Jacob contemptuously as a fraud and an impostor when the then Governor of the Bank, who was passing by, asked Jacob to repeat his story. Falteringly, in the great man’s private office, Jacob did so, adding sadly that the five pounds would have purchased many needed comforts for his wife Martha. And sure enough, after the number of the note had been checked, the bank did redeem its promise and Jacob was sent on his way in high spirits, with a reminder from the Governor that it was on the confidence and trust of such men as he that the security of the bank rested, (Continued on next page)

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That story is one of the highlights of the new ZB feature The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, a dramatised series of incidents from the crowded history of the world’s most famous financial institution. : The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street is an Australian production and features several well known players. Narrator, and actor in several of the main parts, is Ronald Morse. The programme started from 1ZB on May 22, and will be heard from 2ZB and the southern commercial stations on _ succeeding Thursdays. It plays on Thursdays and Saturdays at 7.30 p.m.