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90 Pounds White, 1759 issue
| Issuer | Bank of England |
|---|---|
| Year | 1759-1775 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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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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| Reverse description | The verso is entirely plain and unprinted, conforming to the consistent practice applied to all Bank of England white notes of this era, with no vignettes, lettering, underprint, or ornamental devices of any kind present on the reverse. |
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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.