I propose that the English Provincial Banks, issues by small private banks in England and Wales be put in a separate section at the end of the England section, rather than being integrated with the banknotes of the Bank of England, which is at odds with SCWPM.
There are hundreds of these note issues, and in time they would swamp the Bank of England listings on Numista.
The Provincial Banks are referred to on Numista as ‘Local banknote’ - this is not an accurate term, as the notes were valid throughout England and Wales, and circulated occasionally further afield in Ireland and Scotland. These private bank issues were mainly in the 1800s
The only way we could do this at the moment would be to create a separate currency but I can't see any justifiction for that. I've suggested before that we should be able to sort by issuer, not just denomination or ruler, but this idea has yet to be adopted.
Former Numista referee for banknotes from Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Saint Helena.
A “separate currency” could be created by means of a device such as ‘Sterling note issues of the Provincial Banks’
The justification would be that it would keep the note issues separate from those of the bank of England.
There are relatively few Scottish private bank note issues, as joint stock banks developed there instead.
We haven’t got to Irish private banks yet. However, in the case of Irish private bank note issues, a separate currency would need to be created for notes issued prior to 1826. If a device is not worked out to settle the issues of private banks, then the Ireland section would be messed up by the introduction of private banks - at any rate, this is a low priority as it is a largely unresearched field, with very few notes extant.
I'm not convinced we need to keep them separate but, if we can sort by issuer, then they will appear in separate sections. I'd rather wait to see that implemented than start creating pseudo-currencies because we haven't set up the proper sorting mechanism. That said, we already have a number of pseudo-currencies in the UK section, so the referee may be amenable to this idea.
We already have the separate Irish pound for pre-1826 issues (it was needed for the coins) should we ever get that far back with the notes.
Former Numista referee for banknotes from Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Saint Helena.
For the UK it should be Treasury only once the military vouchers are gone.
For England it would currently be:
Bank of England
Bewdley Bank
Darlington Bank
Durham Bank
Newark Bank
Shrewsbury Bank
Stamford, Spalding & Boston Banking Company
with many more to come. Perhaps we'd want the Bank of England to always appear first?
Scotland and Northern Ireland should be straight-forward except for the current split in the names when Limited was replaced by PLC.
Ireland (encompassing the Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland within the UK, the Free State and Republic) would be:
Currency Commission
Central Bank
Bank of Ireland
Belfast Banking Company
Hibernian Bank
Munster and Leinster Bank
National Bank
Northern Bank
Provincial Bank of Ireland
Royal Bank of Ireland
Ulster Bank
Again, it might be good to keep the first two at the top.
Former Numista referee for banknotes from Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Saint Helena.
