Money of Great Britain

Hello all, delurking with a question: what were the dimensions of notes in
GB during the 30s and 40s? Watching Poirot the other night, I noticed the
size of a 5 pound note he took out of his wallet - it looked almost A5 size.

Were the notes considerably bigger in the 30s and 40s? Did the war
precipitate the printing of smaller sized notes?

Hope these aren't silly questions.

Cheers.

P.

The white fivers were 135mm by 75mm, enormous. Billy


Poss wrote:

Hello all, delurking with a question: what were the dimensions of notes in
GB during the 30s and 40s? Watching Poirot the other night, I noticed the
size of a 5 pound note he took out of his wallet - it looked almost A5 size.

Were the notes considerably bigger in the 30s and 40s? Did the war
precipitate the printing of smaller sized notes?

Hope these aren't silly questions.

Cheers.

P.

On Mon, 30 May 2005 17:50:52 +0800, "Poss" wrote:

Hello all, delurking with a question: what were the dimensions of notes in
GB during the 30s and 40s? Watching Poirot the other night, I noticed the
size of a 5 pound note he took out of his wallet - it looked almost A5 size.

Bet it was white. They were about 5x8 in.

Were the notes considerably bigger in the 30s and 40s? Did the war
precipitate the printing of smaller sized notes?

As I recall those white notes were printed until the 1950s.

Hope these aren't silly questions.

The only silly question is the unasked question.

Padraic.


Cheers.

P.


la cieurgeourea provoer mal trasfu
ast meiyoer ke 'l andrext ben trasfu.

On Mon, 30 May 2005 21:10:46 GMT, "note.boy"
wrote:

The white fivers were 135mm by 75mm, enormous. Billy

Perhaps you can tell us why there was such a vast difference between
these "white" BoE notes and their more colourful counterparts? What
happened to the "white" notes -- why were they discontinued? Obvious
answers would be "they're too damned big" and "too damned insecure" --
but of course, secure inks, embedded strips and hologrammes could take
care of the latter argument.

Padraic.

la cieurgeourea provoer mal trasfu
ast meiyoer ke 'l andrext ben trasfu.

Let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of Padraic Brown
:

On Mon, 30 May 2005 21:10:46 GMT, "note.boy"
wrote:

The white fivers were 135mm by 75mm, enormous. Billy

Perhaps you can tell us why there was such a vast difference between
these "white" BoE notes and their more colourful counterparts? What
happened to the "white" notes -- why were they discontinued? Obvious
answers would be "they're too damned big" and "too damned insecure" --
but of course, secure inks, embedded strips and hologrammes could take
care of the latter argument.

Padraic.

la cieurgeourea provoer mal trasfu
ast meiyoer ke 'l andrext ben trasfu.

If the notes in Poirot were accurate, they appeared to be made from
very flimsy paper, similar to tracing paper.

What about the other notes of the time? Were the shilling notes as
large?

This is fascinating!

Tks guys.

P.

The sole security feature of the white fiver was the watermark.

£5 was a lot of money at the time of the white fiver so I presume the
Bank Of England wanted it to be a large note for that reason.

The lack of security and the large size were the reasons for it's
downfall, I suppose.

The last Scottish note similar in size to the white fiver was the £20
issued by the Bank Of Scotland in 1969, it was 210mm by 130mm. Every
Scottish note collection must have one, only 25,000 were issued. Billy


Padraic Brown wrote:

On Mon, 30 May 2005 21:10:46 GMT, "note.boy"
wrote:

The white fivers were 135mm by 75mm, enormous. Billy

Perhaps you can tell us why there was such a vast difference between
these "white" BoE notes and their more colourful counterparts? What
happened to the "white" notes -- why were they discontinued? Obvious
answers would be "they're too damned big" and "too damned insecure" --
but of course, secure inks, embedded strips and hologrammes could take
care of the latter argument.

Padraic.

la cieurgeourea provoer mal trasfu
ast meiyoer ke 'l andrext ben trasfu.

Poss wrote:

Let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of Padraic Brown
:

On Mon, 30 May 2005 21:10:46 GMT, "note.boy"
wrote:

The white fivers were 135mm by 75mm, enormous. Billy

Perhaps you can tell us why there was such a vast difference between
these "white" BoE notes and their more colourful counterparts? What
happened to the "white" notes -- why were they discontinued? Obvious
answers would be "they're too damned big" and "too damned insecure" --
but of course, secure inks, embedded strips and hologrammes could take
care of the latter argument.

Padraic.

la cieurgeourea provoer mal trasfu
ast meiyoer ke 'l andrext ben trasfu.

If the notes in Poirot were accurate, they appeared to be made from
very flimsy paper, similar to tracing paper.

What about the other notes of the time? Were the shilling notes as
large?

This is fascinating!

Tks guys.

P.

Apologies, the white notes were 210mm by 140mm and not the size I gave
before.

The white notes were in fact printed on very flimsy paper, it's
sometimes described as "onion" paper.

Non white notes were a lot smaller, the wartime £1 note was 150mm by
85mm. Billy