5 Pounds Stockton on Tees Bank

Jonathan Backhouse & Company had been operating in Stockton-on-Tees since 1774, making it one of the older provincial banking houses in the northeast of England. By the time this note was issued in 1884, the private note-issuing privilege was already dying — the Bank Charter Act of 1844 had frozen the number of authorized English private issuers, and any bank that subsequently merged or lost continuity forfeited its right permanently. Backhouse's was still legally entitled to issue, but the practical incentive had largely collapsed as Bank of England notes became universally accepted.

The bank was absorbed into Barclays in 1896, ending the note issue entirely. Survival rates for late Backhouse issues are low — not because of heavy circulation, but because most were redeemed and pulped before any collector interest developed.