British Banknote Prefix Information
INTRODUCTION
The Banknote Prefix Sightings Area of the British Notes website is a special area that we invite you to participate. With your valued help we can build an on-line catalogue of known banknote prefix sightings First Prefix, Last Prefix, Replacements, Column Sorts, Errors, etc... If at anytime whilst referring to these pages you wish to contribute with any updates.
Email pam@britishnotes.co.uk or Phone 0208 641 3224
Replacement Banknotes
When the uncut sheets of banknotes are being checked, faulty sheets are removed. To maintain the numeracy of the stack these are replaced with a perfect sheet of banknotes, thus maintaining the integrity of the stack. These replacement sheets are numbered separately, usually with an M prefix (LL prefix in modern times), in earlier years the prefix A, S--S, T--D, etc, were used.
Z Replacement Banknote from Jersey
Sheet Format
The top left corner banknote of a normal sheet would be numbered eg., BC42 000001, the second note would be BC43 000001, etc., the sheet below would be numbered BC42 000002, the second note being BC43 000002, so when a stack of 100 sheets is guillotined, each bundle of 100 notes is numbered down the bundle 1 to 100.
Column Sort Banknotes
De la Rue, the Bank of England printers, like everyone else, is trying to save money. So, when part faulty sheets are removed from the stack, they are set aside. The errors on the sheets would have been marked with a yellow / orange phosphorescent pen. The sheets would then be guillotined into columns, the good columns sorted out for individual guillotining and numbering. Hence the prefix / serials on column sorts are usually in a higher range. i.e., regular note A35 000001 to A35 800000. Column Sorts A35 900001 to A35 999999.
Column Sort Banknote B400cs The last
Treasury Control Banknotes
Control banknotes are found at the bottom right hand corner of the sheet and were probably used for accounting purposes, though, this has yet to be confirmed. They always carry the prefix Z, the rest of the sheet being a regular prefixes.
Bradbury Control banknote Z/1
Break Number / Split Prefix
Break Numbers / Split Prefixes occur when there is a signature change in the middle of a prefix / printing run. i.e. signature 'A' up to GE 500000 signature 'B' after GE 500001.
1999 Grant / Mathewson AB prefix to serial 400000
2003 Mitchell AB prefix from serial 400001
Serial Types
Ladder serial 012345 or 654321 etc
Solid serial 777777
Low serial 000005 on a 'Special Prefix' banknote
Million serial 1000000, last nought hand set. See Million Serial page.
Radar serial 761167 or 123321 etc
Prefix creating word Soil (Toil - Lion - Dior - Coil - Jail - Boil - etc)
Notches on White Banknotes
In order to prevent banknotes being printed on the wrong watermarked paper, Portals created a simple solution. As the sheet of paper was moulded, a small notch was formed on the right hand edge (top corner for the £5 note) at a specific point for each denomination. This ensured the banknotes were printed on the correct watermarked paper. A sheet of paper created a pair of notes, thus, the left hand note has a cut / straight right hand edge and three deckled edges, at top, bottom and left. The right hand note has a cut / straight left hand edge and three deckled edges, at top, bottom and right - the right hand with the left hand edge and three deckled
The right hand edges of the notes shown above in order of denomination: £5, £10, £20, £50, £100. The notches appear on the right hand edge only, which is always deckled. £5 note notches are in the form of the top right corner removed. For further reading :- Promises to Pay page 98, EPM 10th ed page 411
This method also utilised on the £200, £500 and £1000 notes. The £200 notch is between the £20 and £50 notch. The £500 notch is between the £10 and £20 notch. The £1000 notch is between the £5 and £10 notch.