Bank-notes, or Bank-bills, written or printed promises for money, to be paid by a banking company. They are uniformly made payable on demand. They are not like bills of exchange, mere securities or documents for debt, nor are they so esteemed, but are treated as money in the ordinary course and transactions of business by the general consent of mankind, and, on payment of them, whenever a receipt is required, it is always given as for money, not as for securities or notes. Per Lord Mansfield, Miller v. Race, (1758) 1 Burr at p. 457. Bank of England notes were made a legal tender by the 5th section of the Bank of England Act, 1833 (3 & 4 Wm. 4, c. 98), as amended, everywhere except at the Bank and its branches.
One-pound notes and ten-shilling notes are now issued by the Bank of England, under the authority of the (English) Currency and Bank Notes (Amendment) Act, 1928, and made a legal tender for a payment of any amount. The notes first issued were found to be easy to forge, and they were accordingly called in after a short time and others issued instead, 1918.
As to half-notes, to remit them is not payment, Smith v. Mundy, (1860) 29 LJ QB 172, but they are payable by a Bank upon indemnity, Redmayne v. Barton Lloyd & Co., (1860) 2 LT 324.
As to forgery of bank notes and the offence of merely being in possession of paper or implements to be used for purposes of forgery, see the (English) Forgery Act, 1913, ss. 2, 9. As to liability of shareholders in banks issuing bank notes see ante BANK.