Bank of England 10s note Bank of England 10s note The Bank of England 10s note was a banknote of the pound sterling. Ten shillings in pre-decimal money (written 10s or 10/-) was equivalent to half of one pound. The ten-shilling note was the smallest denomination note ever issued by the Bank of England. The note was issued by the Bank of England for the first time in 1928 and continued to be printed until 1969. The note ceased to be legal tender in 1970 and was removed in favour of the fifty pence coin. In the 18th and 19th centuries, banknotes were handwritten or
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