The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-18
BANK OF ENGLAND NOTES.
Some Romantic Stories About Them.
 From an English Magaznel

| | From an English Magazne.l
 The number of notes coming into the
 Bank of England daily is about fifty thousand and three hundred and fifty thousand are destroyed weekly. The
 average life of a bank note is about | seventy days and they are never re-is- sued. The destruction of the docu-
 ments takes place about once a week,
 and at seven p. m, after the notes have been previously cancelled by punching a hole through the amount Gin tigure0 and tearing off the signature of the chief cashier, they are burned in a
 closed furnace containing merely sha- wings and bundles of wood. Once they
 used to be burnt in a cage, the result of
 which was that once a week the city
 was darkened with burnt fragments of Bank of England notes.
 Bank notes of the value of thousands of pounds are annually lost or de- stroyed by accident. In the forty years
 between 1792 and 1882 there were out standing notes of the Bank of England, presumed to have been either lost or de- stroyed, amounting to fl, 930 900, every shilling of which was clear profit to the bank
 Very curious, occasionally, is the fate of bank notes. They have been found in extraordinary places, have been un- lawfully manufactured, have been lost or misaid under remarkable circum- stances, have been destroyed by acci- dent or of set purpose, and have in cases innumerable been the cause of crime, as well as led to the discovery of the criminal.
 A few years ago a merchant of Linn erick discovered a "pusher" of counter felt bank notes in the following extra ordinary manner: A stranger one day visited his shop, and in payment for what he received placed new bank of Ireland lone pound note" on the coun- ter, and, receiving his change, took his departure. On each bank of Ireland note is list of the towns in which it has branches, amongst which is the town of Corey, in Wexford, and as the merchant was putting the note into his safe this particular town caught his eye, and the idea entered his head that 1t was misspelt, it being down as Co
 
 itor, he took the note to the office of the bank, where, after close scrutiny, it was found to be clever forgery. The 'pusher" was tracked to a leading ho tel and in a trunk found in his apart ments were discovered several thou sand pounds of counterfeit bank notes.
 A few years ago Mr. Munro, the sculptor, gave his sister a five-pound note to pay bill. She put the "bit of paper" in her pocket, and for time forgot all about it. even sending her white dress to the laundry without re- membering it. When the dress came back from the wash, recollecting the and never for moment ex- pecting to find any trace of the docu- ment, she nevertheless looked in the pocket in a hopeless sort of way, and to her surprise and astonishment she found a lump of something hard, which, on being damped and carefully smoothed out, was seen to be the miss ing note, somewhat diminished in quantity, but none the less valuable for | it's practical acquaintance with the washtub It was duly cashed at the bank on 1t being explained that the | note had been washed, boiled, starched | and ironed, which accounted for its di- lapidated condition
 Some sixty odd years ago the cashier | of 8 Liverpool merchant once received | in tender for business payment a | Bank of England note, which he held | up to the scrutiny of the light so as to | make sure of it's genuineness, He ob- 1