314 APPENDIX. [No. XXII. 



Eaoi genuB comprises several species, as notes are of several designa- 

 tions. Thus, in London nine notes are issued, — £5, £10, £20, £50, £100, 

 £200, £300, £500, and £1,000 notes. In every branch, notes are issued up 

 to £100 ; and at the two important commercial towns of Liverpool and 

 Manchester, notes of £500 are issued in addition. In every genus of note 

 the denomination up to £50 is placed in the water-mark in letters, and 

 twice in shaded figures. 



Every species of note is made up of innumerable individuals, each of 

 which has an individuality as distinct and determinate for a bank-note 

 as the individuality which characterises every human being, and also 

 characteristics as marked in the eyes of the Bank, to distinguish one 

 from another, and no more likely to be mistaken than our chairman is 

 likely to be mistaken by you for our secretary, even when you are not so 

 perfectly familiar with their likenesses. This individuality is given by a 

 number and date being added to the denomination. The number is of no 

 use alone, the date is of no use alone, but the number, date, and denomina- 

 tion together conjointly mark the specific individual; and any person 

 having these particulars can learn at the Bank to whom the note was 

 issued, and when it was issued, the date of its return to the Bank, and the 

 person to whom money was paid for it, with many other matters of its 

 pedigree and family history, which are only objects of interest to its 

 mother, the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street. 



It is not generally known to the public that there are two letters 

 preceding the numbers on every note, and which, with the number, tells 

 the whole story of the note. Therefore, if the public wiU but take down 

 the letters and numbers, they can learn every other particular on applying 

 to the Bank. 



To give an idea of the extent of our operations, I find, in casting them 

 up, that there are sixty-six kinds of bank-notes, and about fifty varieties 

 of cheques, which had to be prepared. Besides these, there are twenty-five 

 kinds of bank-bills, issued from eleven different places, independently of 

 sixty day -bills, and various matters which would not be interesting to the 

 meeting, further than to show that the Bank has not merely adopted 

 surface-printing to a bank-note, but to all similar documents of a similar 

 character which they require. 



Had time permitted, it would have been intei'esting in this paper to 

 have considered the progress of typography, and traced, step by step, the 

 successive improvements which have taken place before it could have been 

 adapted to Bank of England notes. In such an investigation we must 

 commence with Tung-Taou, A.D. 924, who appears to be its first inventor. 

 From the works of the Chinese and Japanese we should pass to the Biblica 

 Pauperam ; the illustrated Bible of the pei-iod, printed by blocks, between 

 1420 and 1470. Then we should consider the movable types of Caxton, 

 and works printed by this benefactor of the human race. Upon exami- 

 nation of the choicest specimens of Faust, Schoeffer, and Caxton, 

 Shoensperger, and other great printers, we find that even at the beginning 

 of this century, when Baskerville, Didot, Bensley, and Bodini, produced 

 their finer specimens, surface-printing, as at aU adapted to the present 

 form of the Bank of England note, was only in its earliest infancy. 



If we examine forms of notes printed by typography, we shaU observe 

 that the note of the Bank of Prance and the Belgian note are so produced, 



