Bank of England £1 note Bank of England £1 note The Bank of England £1 note was a banknote of the pound sterling. After the ten shilling note was withdrawn in 1970 it became the smallest denomination note issued by the Bank of England. The one pound note was issued by the Bank of England for the first time in 1797 and continued to be printed until 1984. The note was withdrawn in 1988 in favour of the one pound coin. One pound notes were introduced by the Bank of England for the first time in 1797, following gold shortages caused by the French Revolutionary
Legal tender Minister of Finance. The history of bank notes was considerably more complex. In 1840, the Union Bank of Australia started issuing bank notes under provisions of British law, but these were not automatically legal tender. In 1844, ordinances were passed making the Union Bank banknotes legal tender and authorising the government to issue debentures in small denominations, thus creating two sets of legal tender. These debentures were circulated but were traded at a discount to their face value because of distrust of the colonial government by the settler population. In 1845, the Ordinance was disallowed by the British Colonial office