40 Pounds White, 1778 issue

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.