Talk:Bank of Scotland/Archives/2015


First european bank to print banknotes?

The opening paragraph states that the Bank of Scotland was the first european bank to print banknotes. However this statement is unsourced and it disagrees with the banknote wiki page which states that the bank of sweden was actually the first to use them in 1660. Any idea which one is correct? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.104.203.77 (talk) 18:36, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

Certainly not the first in Europe; the banknote experiment of the Swedish Stockholms Banco in 1661-64 failed only because they issued too many notes for the coin they had on hand, so they were clearly true banknotes exchangeable for coin. (Option clauses, etc., on UK notes existed well into the 19th century, so rarely was it always the case of "hand over a note, always get back coin on the spot"). There's probably a debate whether the Bank of England or Bank of Scotland issued banknotes first. No first notes survive from either, afaik... I've left that wording ambiguous for now. Harami2000 (talk)