Leith Banking Company £5 note

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

51542

Title

Five pound bank note from the Leith Banking Company

Description

A five pound bank note from the Leith Banking Company. The edges are torn or folded over and there is discolouration all over the note. The note features an engraving of Leith Harbour below the words, 'Leith Banking Company'.

Date

1825

Location

Museums Collection Centre

Copyright

The City of Edinburgh Council Museums and Galleries

This banknote was issued by the Leith Banking Company in 1825. The Leith Banking Company was based on Bernard Street in Leith but also had branches in Callander, Dalkeith, Galashiels, Langholm and even Carlisle. The bank conducted a lot of business at agricultural markets and fairs in ‘tent branches’ - mobile and temporary branches. This suggests that they had a significant financial interest in agricultural business.

The banknote is hand signed by three directors of the bank. This was common practice on all bank notes issued at this time. The bank was established in 1793 by eighteen partners, principally local merchants based in Leith. The note is printed on only one side as it wasn’t until a year later that the first banknotes were printed on both sides, by the Royal Bank of Scotland. The note is engraved with a vignette featuring the port of Leith including the Custom House.

The note was printed by Perkins and Heath, steel plate engravers who were based at 69 Fleet Street, London. Perkins and Heath printed bank notes for many of the UK’s banks and also printed postage stamps for foreign countries.

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Related subjects

Business > Service industry > Banks

Places > Edinburgh areas > Leith

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

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