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20 Pounds White
| Issuer | Bank of England |
|---|---|
| Year | 1836-1852 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | P#223 |
| Obverse description | A vignette of Britannia seated appears at the upper left, serving as the principal pictorial element of the note. The face is dominated by the Bank of England's formal promise-to-pay text, hand-dated and printed in a period letterpress style with manuscript additions, including the payee name and authorizing signatures. The composition is entirely typographic and engraved in the tradition of early nineteenth-century British white notes, with no underprint or decorative guilloche. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Bank of England I Promise to pay to Mr Matthew Marshall on Demand the Sum of Twenty Pounds 1838 Feb 6 London 6 Feb 1838 For the Govr and Compa of the Bank of England |
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| Comments |
Bank of England "white notes" — unilateral, printed only on one side in black ink on white paper — were a continuous series that changed remarkably little in appearance across decades. This 20 Pound denomination falls within the governorship period spanning multiple figures, but the notes themselves were individualised by hand: each bore a cashier's signature, a sequential serial number, and a date written in manuscript at the time of issue, making every example technically unique.
Forgery was a persistent problem with the white note series throughout the early nineteenth century, and the Bank prosecuted forgers aggressively — including pursuing capital punishment cases into the 1820s. By the 1830s public pressure had forced a reform of those penalties, but the Bank's anti-forgery vigilance remained intense.
High-denomination whites at this value were primarily instruments of interbank settlement and merchant trade, not retail circulation — genuine street wear on a 20 Pound example from this period would be unusual.