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1 Pound, Southern District Banking Company
| Issuer | Southern District Banking Company |
|---|---|
| Year | 1836-1840 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Printed in black ink on cream paper, the obverse carries the heading "Guernsey Branch of the Southern District Banking Company" in elaborate copperplate script at the top, with a rectangular "ONE" panel at the upper right. To the left, a finely engraved vignette depicts a coastal town with sailing vessels in the harbour, alongside a seated allegorical female figure holding a shield bearing the Guernsey arms. The promise-to-pay text reads in italic script "We Promise to pay the Bearer on Demand here the Sum of One Pound Value received", with manuscript date spaces marked "18", and at the lower left a decorative dotted-border panel bearing the denomination "One"; at the lower right, signature lines are designated for the Local Director and Manager, and a "British Sterling" oval handstamp appears at centre. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is entirely unprinted, left blank on plain cream paper, consistent with private bank note practice of the period. |
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| Comments |
The Southern District Banking Company was one of the provincial Scottish joint-stock banks that proliferated after the Banking Copartneries Act of 1826 relaxed restrictions on note issuance outside Edinburgh. It operated out of Dumfries and served the agricultural and trade economy of the southwest. The bank's lifespan was short — it was absorbed by the Western Bank of Scotland in 1838, which itself collapsed spectacularly in 1857, one of the most damaging Scottish bank failures of the nineteenth century.
Notes issued under the Southern District name after 1838 would have been in rundown, technically superseded before the Western Bank printing plates were fully in service. Surviving examples from this brief window are correspondingly rare.