1 Pound Douglas and Isle of Man Bank-Dumbell - Overprint

Dumbell's Banking Company acquired the business of the Douglas and Isle of Man Bank in 1874, and rather than commission entirely new plates, they overprinted existing stock — a common enough economy, but one that creates a documentary record of the transition that new printings would not have preserved. W. & A. K. Johnston, best known as cartographic engravers and publishers, handled both the original printing and, almost certainly, the overprint work from their Edinburgh premises.

Dumbell's itself collapsed spectacularly in 1900, one of the most damaging bank failures in Manx history, wiping out thousands of depositors. Notes from the transitional 1874–75 overprint period predate that crisis by a quarter century, but survival rates are poor regardless of issue date.