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1 Pound / 20 Shillings Belfast Banking Company
| Issuer | Belfast Banking Company Limited |
|---|---|
| Year | 1912-1914 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 200 × 112 mm |
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| Obverse description | The bank's heraldic arms vignette is positioned at upper centre, flanked left and right by two guilloche-framed oval cartouches bearing the branch names 'BELFAST' and 'DUBLIN' respectively, with extensive lists of payable-at branch towns running vertically along both lateral edges. Two 'ONE' denomination panels in guilloche surrounds appear at upper left and upper right of centre. The promise-to-pay text and denomination 'TWENTY SHILLINGS' are set within a blue guilloche underprint panel at mid-field, with the date and issuing authority's signature appearing below. The foot of the note carries the bold letterpress legend 'ONE POUND' within an ornate cartouche, above the founding and incorporation dates. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is printed entirely in blue on plain paper and is dominated by four large circular guilloche rosettes, one at each corner, with intricate lathe-work patterns. A central rectangular panel carries the bank's name in bold letterpress within an ornamental scrollwork frame, surmounted and underlaid by the word 'ONE' in smaller type within decorative cartouches. |
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| Comments |
The Belfast Banking Company was one of the older Ulster joint-stock banks, founded in 1827, and by the 1912–1914 period was operating in the final decades before it was absorbed into the Midland Bank in 1917. That absorption — and the subsequent integration into a mainland British clearing bank — meant the Belfast Banking Company's note-issuing history was effectively cut short, making late-series issues like this one the last expressions of its independent circulation.
Irish private bank notes of this period were legal tender only by convention and commercial trust, not statute. The dual denomination — one pound and twenty shillings — printed on the same face was a practical hedge against a public that still thought in both units.