Catalog
40 Pounds White, 1778 issue
| Issuer | Bank of England |
|---|---|
| Year | 1778-1807 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 40 Pounds |
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| Obverse description | Unilateral white note printed in black letterpress, with a Britannia vignette enclosed within an ornate cartouche at the upper right. The body of the note is occupied by the handwritten and printed promise-to-pay text in copperplate script, with the denomination expressed in both words and figures. A rectangular "PAID" cancellation stamp appears at the lower left, and an "Ent.d" entry notation is present at the lower right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 1779 I Promise to pay to_ or Bearer on Demand the Sum of FORTY Pounds London on the 3 day of June 1779 For the Govr and Compa of the Bank of England £FORTY Ent.d |
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| Comments |
Bank of England "White Notes" of this period were handwritten instruments, not printed in the modern sense — a cashier completed each note by hand, entering the payee name, date, and amount at the point of issue. The £40 denomination sits in an awkward middle range: too large for everyday commerce, too small for the major mercantile transactions that favored £100 and above, which may partly explain why survivorship rates for this value are particularly low.
The series spans nearly three decades, bridging the anxious years of the Restriction Period beginning 1797, when convertibility to gold was suspended under threat of the French wars and a near-run on the Bank itself.