Northern Banking Company Notes Pre-1929

Banknotes issued by Joint Stock Banks prior to 1929
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Re: Northern Banking Company Notes Pre-1929

Post by DOC »

That is a good question. I had initially assumed that the W.H. Baskin listed as pro-Manager of Ball's Branch in 1890 and the Chief Cashier of Bank of Ireland were one and the same person. However, the census records of 1901 and 1911 reveal that the name is not unique ! It will require some further checking to answer this question.
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Re: Northern Banking Company Notes Pre-1929

Post by Mac »

Handily, we do have examples of the signature of the W. H. Baskin, Chief Cashier of Bank of Ireland as a starting point!
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Re: Northern Banking Company Notes Pre-1929

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A more detailed search confirms that the W.H. Baskin associated with Ball’s Bank is the uncle of W.H. Baskin, the Chief Cashier of Bank of Ireland. The attached obituary for W.H. Baskin of Ball’s Bank is dated 2nd September 1907. The obituary of W.H. Baskin, the Chief Cashier of Bank of Ireland, is dated 21st May 1938.

There are some independent references confirming that the uncle was associated with Ball’s Bank and in one case he is described as Secretary. The nephew joined Bank of Ireland at a young age in 1874, became Chief Cashier in 1903 and retired in 1919.

By chance, I came across an interesting article in the search for W.H. Baskin which I will post in the Bank of Ireland 1922 string.
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W.H. Baskin Ball's Bank Obituary 1907.JPG
W.H. Baskin Ball's Bank Obituary 1907.JPG (25.08 KiB) Viewed 4269 times
W.H. Baskin Bank of Ireland Cashier Obituary 1938.JPG
W.H. Baskin Bank of Ireland Cashier Obituary 1938.JPG (49.64 KiB) Viewed 4269 times
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Re: Northern Banking Company Notes Pre-1929

Post by Mac »

That's a very useful find on the two W.H. Baskins, and their relation to each other. They both retired Co. Down, I see from the snippets.
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Re: Northern Banking Company Notes Pre-1929

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PMI indicates that multi-branch £100 notes of the Northern Banking Company Limited were printed in very small numbers with just 4 dates: 1st May 1912; 5th Aug. 1914; 25th April 1918 and 2nd June 1919. The only surviving notes seen to date have the 1919 date which was subsequently issued with an overprint for use in Northern Ireland in 1929.

If these notes follow the pattern of the other denominations, the 1912 and 1914 dates should have red serials changing to black for the 1918 date and back to red in 1919. Unfortunately, the only date available to check this proposal is the 1919 date. This one has red serials.
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Northern Banking Company 100 Pounds 2nd June 1919 H.J.Craig.jpg
Northern Banking Company 100 Pounds 2nd June 1919 H.J.Craig.jpg (67.48 KiB) Viewed 4184 times
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Re: Northern Banking Company Notes Pre-1929

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The only known examples of these £100 notes are those with the overprint. Many of them are in nice grade.
It would be nice to come across an example without the overprint.
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Re: Northern Banking Company Notes Pre-1929

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Here is an unusual specimen note of a Northern £1 note, 1925, which was in a recent Spink auction.
It appears to be a specimen created by perforating an issued note at the end of a print run. It is also possible that they might have produced more than one note numbered 085000 for use as specimens, once marked as a specimen the note loses any face value.

This is the first time I have come across a small size Northern specimen note.
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northern-bank-one-pound-1925.jpg
northern-bank-one-pound-1925.jpg (61.53 KiB) Viewed 2954 times
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Re: Northern Banking Company Notes Pre-1929

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Interesting to see a numbered note used as a specimen. I wonder if notes with serial numbers ending in ‘000’ (multiples of a thousand) were preferentially used for this purpose?
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Re: Northern Banking Company Notes Pre-1929

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Here are examples of Northern Banking Company £1 specimen notes from 1918 which were recently sold at auction.
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Northern Banking Company 1 Pound Specimen 1st July 1918.jpg
Northern Banking Company 1 Pound Specimen 1st July 1918.jpg (171.71 KiB) Viewed 2914 times
Northern Banking Company 1 Pound Specimen 11th November 1918.jpg
Northern Banking Company 1 Pound Specimen 11th November 1918.jpg (174.8 KiB) Viewed 2914 times
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Re: Northern Banking Company Notes Pre-1929

Post by ThePloughman »

I saw these in Spink, London. Either of them was a good opportunity to get an example of the design in good grade.
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Re: Northern Banking Company Notes Pre-1929

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The water marks show up very clearly in each of the two large size Specimens, which is seldom the case in well circulated notes.

All in all, a nice little group of notes to see turning up for sale.
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Re: Northern Banking Company Notes Pre-1929

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Multi-branch notes can provide useful information about the branches of a bank and the progression of the branch network over time. The Northern Banking Company listed branches in the border of their notes. To reduce the number design updates, additional branches were added as overprints in the lower left hand corner of the notes in the order in which they were established.

An interesting example is the appearance of Tubbercurry on Northern Banking Company notes for a short time in 1873. The branch had a fleeting existence and by 1874 had disappeared.
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Northern Banking Company 1 Pound Proof ca. 1873 with Tubbercurry.jpg
Northern Banking Company 1 Pound Proof ca. 1873 with Tubbercurry.jpg (200.71 KiB) Viewed 2891 times
Northern Banking Company 1 Proof ca.1874 44 Branches Tubbercurry absent.jpg
Northern Banking Company 1 Proof ca.1874 44 Branches Tubbercurry absent.jpg (189.67 KiB) Viewed 2891 times
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Re: Northern Banking Company Notes Pre-1929

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This rare Northern Banking Company Limited £1 with a 1919 date and red serials appeared recently at a Noonan’s auction. The signature on the note was described as unclear and indeed it is difficult to decipher.

PMI provided a useful lead with two possible signatories from the note registers. A search of the 1911 Census of Ireland suggests that the note is signed by a W.F.S. Wilkinson (Wilfrid Frederick Sand Wilkinson). He was manager of the Irvinestown Branch of the Northern Bank at the time. Although the signature on the 1911 census return (in grey background) is not a perfect match for that on the note, there are a number of similarities which suggest they were both signed by the same person.
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Northern Banking Company Limited 1 Pound 1st May 1919 W.F.S. Wilkinson.jpg
Northern Banking Company Limited 1 Pound 1st May 1919 W.F.S. Wilkinson.jpg (72.92 KiB) Viewed 2439 times
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Re: Northern Banking Company Notes Pre-1929

Post by Mac »

Nice work! This signature has long been a mystery. One of the issues with identifying signatures on these old notes is deciphering the handwriting!
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Re: Northern Banking Company Notes Pre-1929

Post by callahiljo »

Working back from the bank's records we assumed, in PMI 2nd edition, that this signature was W J S Wilkins.
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Re: Northern Banking Company Notes Pre-1929

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The handwriting style of the W matches well on both samples.
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Northern-Banking-Company-Limited-Wilkinson-W.jpg
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Re: Northern Banking Company Notes Pre-1929

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W.F.S. Wilkinson held a number of positions with the Northern Banking Company over his career and is mentioned on P.262 of the Northern Banking Company Centenary Volume (1924) as manager of the Armagh Branch. I did not manage to find any references to the name ‘Wilkins’ associated with the bank.
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Re: Northern Banking Company Notes Pre-1929

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Well, I've checked back my files from before the 1st edition in 2008/9 and lo and behold there is no W J S Wilkins but there is a W F S Wilkinson, mentioned in, amongst other places, the centenary history on page 262 as manager of Armagh branch.

I stand corrected!
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Re: Northern Banking Company Notes Pre-1929

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That was a difficult signature to decipher. Luckily, the Wilkins surname proved to be really useful in finding the signatory in the 1911 Census !
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Re: Northern Banking Company Notes Pre-1929

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Here is an interesting Northern Banking Company £20 proof note, Belfast Branch, from the single branch era. This single branch note denominated in British Currency is from the Second issue dating from 1825-1850.
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Nothern Banking Company 20 Pounds Proof Belfast ca.1825-1850.jpg
Nothern Banking Company 20 Pounds Proof Belfast ca.1825-1850.jpg (157.68 KiB) Viewed 1769 times
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