18th - 19th Century Printing Plate for 50 UK Pounds

I have been offered an old printing plate for printing 50 pound notes.

Not an area that I know anything about but interesting from an historical point of view. It's not cheap though at almost $500!!!

A brief search shows that banks did in fact issue paper money back then with a promise to exchange them for coin.

So what do you guy think.....should I go for it??

Sorry about the quality of the photos from the seller.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

If it's an actual plate, shouldn't all of the writing be reversed?

 

I was thinking the same thing.

 

The last photo is reversed... is there a chance the first two were taken in a mirror?

By the way, the paper money forum is a more relevant spot for this post.

 

Dave M is correct but please don't jump over to the paper money forum until you let us know if the plates are backwards or forwards . . .

 

Pretty cool if it’s real.

 

I assume the first two pictures were reversed in a photo processing program to make them easily readable. It takes but an iinstant to do this.

It does appear to be a plate for a provincial bank. Since the 18th C the Bank of England was the official bank note issuer, but English banks all over the country issued notes in the 19th C, and these are collected today. Some of the banks failed, making the notes worthless, or partially payable, other banks merged with banks that are still active and are in theory still worth the face value although the collectable value is much higher.
I cannot read the partner's names from the plate, but these names will enable you to search British Provincial banknotes to find out exactly what happened to that bank. On the reversed image I can see mention of an Act of Parliament in the reign of George IV authorising the issue. (Roughly 1820-30)
It is not unknown, although it is rare, for printing plates to surface, and I have no idea of a fair price. To a collector of Provincial notes $500 may well be a reasonable price. Such collectors would almost certainly be in Britain.
Some Scottish and Northern Irish banks still issue their own banknotes today. Technically, they are not 'legal tender' but this is immaterial since everyone in the relevant countries accepts them, as do all banks in England.

 

Not Bank of England but nice. Images should be reversed unless it was a practice plate. Should be worth £500 unless it isn't engraved. The letters and sail should be lightly engraved and fine in finish.

 

It is reversed/inversed. The photos were taken in a mirror to be able to read the text. Have done the deal

Finalised it at $400.

 

Is it possible for the moderators to move this thread to currency notes or do I need to start a new thread?