In the 19th century local banks proliferated, financed by local citizens. Many went bust but some, like the Stockton on Tees Bank, merged with larger banks to survive. The Stockton on Tees Bank was taken over by the precursors of the Barclays Bank we know today. As part of the process, Barclays honoured the note issue and to show that this had been done, the signature panel was cut out. As every time a note was issued it was required for stamp duty to be paid, these notes were circulated extensively to avoid new duty being paid. The vast bulk of the Stockton on Tees notes that we see are very well circulated but we recently bought a group which were cancelled the usual way but are in much much higher grade. Here we present the Stockton on Tees £5 note dated in the 1880’s-90’s in circulated condition.
