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What they're made of
September 7, 2024 @ 19:21Roger Withington designed the Series E banknotes for the Bank of England which were released in the early 90s. Beginning with the £5, which was released 7 June 1990. Withington was given the task of taking historical figures from British history (all English and male) chosen by the bank and creating a banknote celebrating their accomplishments. The lettering on the face was matched to earlier letterforms used on £5 notes, while the monarch’s portrait was kept in a neutral color. Withington went to almost absurd lengths to make certain that as much as possible in the design was directly related to his charge to celebrate whichever historical figure he’d been given. He began work in the early 80s, long before color scanners became commonplace in homes. This becomes important later.
The 1990 £5 had George Stephenson as the subject. While Stephenson didn’t invent railroads, he is often called the Father of the Railroad for his pioneering early work in locomotives and the standardization of rail gauges. It’s also the only example in this series with imagery outside the Greater London area. On the obverse there is the standard portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on the right in a neutral color. At left is Brittania, taken from one used on banknotes during Stephenson’s life. Each note in the series features a different version. Brittania is surrounded by a background of hexagonal nuts, used by Stephenson in building tracks and parts of locomotives.
The hexagonal nut pattern
A new technology was used that built bright intaglio features for the visually impaired on this series. Each note features a different shape in an easily accessible color and shape. A circle on the 5, diamond on the 10, square on the 20, and triangle on the 50. For the £5 within the circle is a cast iron rail wheel from the 1830s time period on the banknote.
The cast iron rail wheel
Along the borders of the obverse are examples of more advanced iron locomotive wheels and railway bridge designs. At the top right a series of rows of engineers’ dividers used in all manner of engineering, but in this case with the intent to relate to early rail.
Even within the serif font of the “FIVE” text one can find billows of smoke and rail ties.
On the reverse the railway theme continues. The large portrait of George Stephenson on the right is next to a stylized version of his signature, a feature common on the reverse of all notes in the series. At the top a version of his steam engine “Locomotion” pulling a train across the Skerne Bridge, a rider on a horse with a flag in front of the train is warning others. This train was the first to carry members of the public and did so on the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825. The train is taken from a sketch that was eventually turned into a lithograph. The banknote differs from the lithograph in that Withington found out the tender on the locomotive would have been a wooden barrel and not an iron tank, which he duly added to his illustration. The word “Locomotion” was created in a microprint railway themed pattern and continues from the little scene to the “sun” at the right. In the background of the arch there is an image of a station house upon a hill in the distance, which was taken directly from the seal of the Stockton and Darlington Railway and then mirrored. The centerpiece of the reverse is the sun, it’s rays coming down and lighting a fire. This is in reference to how the locomotive was lighted, by focusing the sun’s rays on tarred rope to start a fire. At left is an elevation drawing of Stephenson’s 1829 engine the “Rocket”. Stars, representing sparks lighting coal, round out the background. Surrounding the stylized sun is a boilerplate full of holes taken directly from plans of the locomotive itself. Radiating outward from the boiler place are the suns rays. Or are they? The rays themselves are patterned after coal shovels.
The "Locomotion" going over the Skerne Bridge on the back with the steam engine house in the background.
The coal shovel rays, taken from an early railroad lithograph.
Igniting a tarred rope to start the steam engine, a boilerplate pattern taken reproduced from an original drawing.
The series E £10 note was released April 29, 1992 and features Charles Dickens. Withington’s research involved going to the Dickens museum in London and evidently photographing absolutely everything and trying to force it onto a banknote. The £10 is orange and features the same main elements of the earlier £5. The obverse features the Queen, and a portrait of Brittania. This time Brittania was taken from a Victorian era depiction in the Bank’s collection and given an oval border from yet another depiction to fit in with the theme. The visually impaired diamond contains a part of a relief on the base of a clock that Dickens once owned, of all things.
The border at the lower end is based off drapes in Dickens’ home, with dripping dividers containing tiny 10s. The background surrounding Brittania is based on both wallpaper and the pattern on a silver goblet given to Dickens by the staff of a newspaper he wrote for. At the top in microprint are the names of Dickens’ works, while within a large oval is a floral scene taken from a sconce on a fireplace at Dickens’ home. Within that and the letters “TEN” are quill pens in very fine detail.
The goblet and fireplace patterns on the obverse. Looking very closely one can spot quill pens in the ten.
At the top right, like the engineering tools on the £5 we have a pattern based on pen nibs, the flat type popular during the Victorian period.
The reverse features a portrait of Dickens drawn by Withington and engraved at De La Rue, with a scene from his novel The Pickwick Papers. Withington thought the scene a pleasant one given the often-dark themes in the author’s work. It’s a cricket match based on an illustration by R.W. Buss in the first edition of the book. The rest of the reverse is rich with imagery. While the sunburst image on the first designed note in the series, the £5, was required to tell the story of lighting the steam engine - Withington continued the sunburst style on the rest of them as well. Here at the top center is a star based on a lampshade in Dickens’ home. Surrounding this are books, upon which Withington added an anchor to denote what he thought was a nautical theme of the novel David Copperfield. Radiating outward are more pen nibs, bordered by small representations of cricket balls.
The Series E notes contained anti counterfeit technology in several forms, including an interesting computerized linework technique in the portrait of Dickens on the back. The traditional engraving was enhanced at the midline where a series of lines over the portrait are horizontal on the top half and vertical on the bottom. The anti-counterfeiting technology was often for nought, though, the Series E was of the most counterfeited banknote series of any large country in peacetime in history.
The lampshade in question, copies of David Copperfield with anchor, and the anti-counterfeit break on the portrait of Dickens.