Bank of England note issues was decided to replace the 10/- note with the 50p coin. The ten-shilling note was withdrawn from circulation on 20 November 1970 following the introduction on 14 October 1969 of the fifty pence coin. The first Bank of England £1 note was issued on 2 March 1797 under the direction of Thomas Raikes, Governor of the Bank of England, and according to the orders of the government of William Pitt the Younger, in response to the need for smaller denomination banknotes to replace gold coin during the French Revolutionary Wars. The Bank of England's first £1 note since 1845 was
Bank of England 10s note only obliged to exchange notes for gold in multiples of 400 ounces or more. The responsibility for the printing of ten-shilling notes was transferred to the Bank of England in 1928, and the right to redeem banknotes for gold ceased in 1931 when Britain stopped using the gold standard. The first Bank of England ten-shilling notes were two-sided, red, printed banknotes featuring the declaration "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of ten shillings" on the front. This declaration remains on Bank of England banknotes to this day. In 1940, during the Second World War, ten-shilling notes