1 Guinea

Pontefract Bank was one of dozens of small English country banks that issued their own notes under the terms permitting private note issue before the Bank Charter Act of 1844 gradually ended the practice. A guinea denomination — 21 shillings rather than a round pound — was already an anachronism by 1810, rooted in the old gold coinage that had effectively disappeared from circulation during the Napoleonic Wars. Issuing in guineas rather than pounds was partly traditional, partly a way of signaling gentility in commercial transactions.

Pontefract Bank did not survive the country banking crises of the 1820s.