Bank of England £5 note (£5) were introduced by the Bank of England in 1793, following the ten pound note which had been introduced in 1759 as a consequence of gold shortages caused by the Seven Years' War. The 5 pound note was introduced again, due to gold shortages caused by the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars and was the lowest denomination of note issued until 1797. The earliest notes were handwritten and were issued to individuals as needed. These notes were written on one side only and bore the name of the payee, the date and the signature of the issuing cashier.
Bank of England note issues to combat forgery, higher denomination notes (at the time as high as £1,000) were removed from circulation. Banknotes in various denominations have been issued over time. The denominations are listed in this table, using information from the Bank of England's Withdrawn Banknote guide: The Bank of England's first ten-shilling (10/-) note was issued on 22 November 1928. This note featured a vignette of Britannia, a feature of the Bank's notes since 1694. The predominant colour was red-brown. Unlike previous notes it, and the contemporaneous £1 note, were not dated but are instead identified by the signature of the Chief Cashier