Catalog
90 Pounds White, 1759 issue
| Issuer | Bank of England |
|---|---|
| Year | 1759-1775 |
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| Currency | Pound sterling (1158-1970) |
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| Obverse description | A seated Britannia vignette occupies the upper left corner, serving as the Bank of England's enduring institutional emblem. The face of the note combines letterpress-printed text with manuscript entries to form the traditional promise-to-pay obligation, with the denomination NINETY rendered in a composite of typeset and handwritten characters; the issue date and authorising signatures are inscribed by hand in accordance with the partially-printed format standard to eighteenth-century Bank of England white notes. |
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| Obverse lettering | I Promise to pay to _ or Bearer on Demand the Sum of NINETY London on the 27 day of Jan 1761 For the Govr and Compa of the Bank of England. £NINETY Ent.d |
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| Comments |
Bank of England "white notes" of this period were hand-written on a partially engraved form, with the cashier's signature, payee name, and date entered in ink — making each note effectively a unique manuscript document. The £90 denomination is among the most unusual in the entire pre-printed series; round sums like £50 or £100 dominate surviving examples, and odd amounts like £90 typically reflect specific commercial transactions rather than standard banking practice, often tied to the settlement of a precise debt or the discounting of a bill of exchange.
The 1759 issue falls within the Seven Years' War, when the Bank was under sustained pressure to finance government borrowing. Forgery was already a serious institutional concern by this decade, though the more aggressive wave of counterfeiting that prompted design changes came later.