irishpapermoney.com

This bank never issued its own banknotes (it issued Bank of Ireland notes instead). However, the occasional cheque and bill of exchange can be found. Here are images of one of each. Sadly there was no room to include them in PMI 2nd Edition. The cheque is especially interesting as it was signed by John Sadleir, whose management ruined the bank, and was for the huge sum of £52, 211 1s 8d. If only it could tell the whole story!

£52, 211 1s 8d!
That would be a potentially ruinous amount for many a private bank of that era! I wonder what the back story to this cheque was.

I am more interested in what the 1s 8d was for and why the cheque wasn't rounded down to the closest £1 etc?

Is it some multiple of a guinea?

In any case, that was a huge amount of money!

James.

I doubt that the odd amount has any significance in terms of currency but undoubtedly, the sum for £52,271 1s 8d was a vast amount of money at the time. To put this amount in context, the attached article relating to the financials of the Tipperary Joint Stock Bank at the time indicate a surplus of just £6,136 2s 9d for the year 1847 to be added to the Reserve Fund.

It seems unlikely that a transaction for such a huge amount could be completely anonymous so there should be records to provide information about the back story. The payee on the check is not easy to decipher, so if anyone has any ideas it would help with a search.

It is possible the payee is Cash which would have been a challenge to provide! But it's not clear and the cheque is stuck down on card making it impossible to see what endorsements if any are on the back.

Given the subsequent collapse of the Tipperary Joint Stock Bank (TJSB) in 1856 and the fraudulent activities uncovered, it would be reasonable to regard this transaction as suspicious. However, there may be a legitimate explanation.

The TJSB had an arrangement with Bank of Ireland to exclusively issue its notes and receive a 1% discount. Upon implementation of The Bankers (Ireland) Act 1845, the TJSB could have issued its own notes but decided to waive this right following agreement with Bank of Ireland to maintain their original arrangement up to 1856. If Bank of Ireland decided to cease the arrangement with TJSB prior to 1856, the 1845 legislation required it to compensate TJSB for losses on note circulation to a maximum of £60,000.

The Payee is difficult to read on the cheque for £52,211 1s 8d but appears to end in the abbreviated word, acct. (account). I wonder if the cheque is a transfer in favour of Bank of Ireland to account for its notes placed in circulation by the TJSB?

DOC wrote: ↑19 Mar 2023 10:36 The Payee is difficult to read on the cheque for £52,211 1s 8d but appears to end in the abbreviated word, acct. (account). I wonder if the cheque is a transfer in favour of Bank of Ireland to account for its notes placed in circulation by the TJSB?

Well, that would be interesting!