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1 Pound Franche Ville Bank
| Issuer | Franche Ville Bank, Jersey |
|---|---|
| Year | 1833-1835 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Pound (1813-1971) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio engraving on cream paper with a salmon-toned underprint. The upper centre carries the bank title 'FRANCHE VILLE BANK / JERSEY' within an elaborate cartouche of scrollwork, flanked on the left by a pastoral vignette of a cow grazing beneath a tree with a sheaf, and on the right by a vignette of a stag standing in a wooded landscape. The main text in flowing copperplate script reads 'Promise to pay the Bearer on Demand ONE POUND Value received', with a Gothic-lettered denomination panel 'One Pound' at lower left; number boxes with decorative 'No' cyphers appear at upper left and right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain cream paper reverse, largely unprinted, with blue wash or colour patches visible along the left and right margins and at the top and bottom edges, consistent with period album or storage mounting residue. No printed text or design elements are present. |
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| Comments |
The Franche Ville Bank was one of several short-lived private banks that emerged in Jersey during the 1820s and 1830s, operating outside the oversight structures that governed mainland British banking. It failed, as most of them did, leaving noteholders exposed. The two-year window of 1833–1835 almost certainly brackets collapse rather than planned closure.
W. Adams engraved and printed locally at 4 Library Place — a rare instance of a Jersey private bank not importing its plates from London. That decision kept costs down but also meant security features were rudimentary by the standards of the period.