Catalog
50 Pounds Belfast Banking Company
| Issuer | Belfast Banking Company Limited |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 50 Pounds (50 Puint) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of the bank arms within an oval guilloche frame, flanked by two large denomination numerals '50'. Branch names payable at listed in columns along both left and right margins, with 'BELFAST' and 'DUBLIN' in corner cartouches. Promise-to-pay text with date and place printed in letterpress across the centre, above a cursive 'Fifty Pounds' panel at lower left. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Belfast Banking Company Limited I Promise to pay the Bearer on Demand here or at the Coy`s Branches Fifty Pounds Belfast For the Belfast Banking Company Limited Fifty Pounds Established 1827. Incorporated 1865. |
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| Comments |
The Belfast Banking Company Limited was one of the older Ulster joint-stock banks, founded in 1827, and by 1917 it was operating in the shadow of wartime financial strain that had tightened paper supply and complicated the normal rhythms of commercial banking across Ireland. Charles Skipper & East had long supplied engraved notes to Irish provincial banks, and the quality of the intaglio work on this series reflects that established relationship.
A £50 denomination in provincial Irish banking was not a retail instrument — these moved between businesses, solicitors, and land transactions, and saw limited hands before returning to the bank.
The Belfast Banking Company was absorbed into the Midland Bank group in 1917, the same year this note was issued.