To:                 Messrs Perkins, Bacon & Petch, 69 Fleet Street, London

From:             Mungo Ponton, Secretary, National Bank of Scotland, Edinburgh

Dated:            19th August 1843.

Gentlemen,

    I beg to inform you that by the Royal William Steamer which sails for London this afternoon we forward two boxes to your address.

    Box No. 1 contains 50 Reams & 227 Sheets Small Note paper, and 6 Reams & 50 Sheets Large Note paper to be printed as follows. Viz. 50,000 £1 Notes, Letter I. 2,500 £5 and 500 £100 Notes.  Our object in sending the odd sheets is to enable you to throw off the above numbers of good impressions respectively.

    Box. No. 2 contains 30,000 £1, 2,000 £5 and 200 £100 Notes, all of which we will thank you to get stamped and returned to us as early as possible by one of the Steamers.  Messrs. Glyn & Co. will as formerly honour your Drafts for the amount of the duty agreeably to our advice by this Post, and on application they will also hand you the 20/-, £5 and £100 Plates.

    We are in no hurry for the Notes which are to be printed and you can therefore forward them at your convenience.  You will please understand that we do not wish any of these stamped at present.

    When you send us your account for printing, be so good as to let us have such a state as you usually furnish in regard to the paper.

    I am,

       Gentlemen,

          Your Most Obedient Servant,

             M Ponton, Secretary.

Steam Packet - Royal William.  The early history of passenger steamship services saw keen competition between small concerns anxious to capture a share of an increasingly popular – and profitable – means of transport.  From the summer of 1831 the ships of the London and Edinburgh Steam Packet Company were in fierce rivalry with the London, Leith, Edinburgh and Glasgow Shipping Company, which in that year introduced the brand new steamers Royal William, Royal Adelaide and Victoria to challenge the earlier established Soho, James Watt and United Kingdom which regularly plyed the Leith to London route.  The London, Leith, Edinburgh and Glasgow Shipping Company claimed of the Royal William that “it was admitted by all to be unrivalled in the elegance and comfort of her accommodation” and that she had established “a decided superiority in speed over all the other vessels”.  The rival company dismissed this claim in newspaper advertisements, asserting of the Soho and James Watt that “the well known character of these vessels supersedes the necessity of any comment as to their speed, safety and comfort".

The National Bank of Scotland was established in 1825 with a capital of £5,000,000 divided into 50,000 shares of £100 each. 

The reference to Stamping is, I believe, the Printer being requested to pay the Stamp Duty Tax which was due by any note issuing bank to the Crown.  I have found the following article

Stamp Duty was first levied on bank notes in 1783.  At first the Stamp Duty related only to notes over one guinea but by 1800 it had to be paid on every banknote.  Under the Act the paper had to be stamped before each note was printed.  Stamping the paper was a lengthy process as it involved the Scottish banks travelling to the Stamp Office in London.  In 1808 the Scottish banks were granted the concession of issuing their notes on unstamped paper and paying the duty in a lump sum.

I can follow some of what is suggested above although this article suggests that the Scottish Banks were able to use unstamped paper.  Further investigation is required although I recall that this concession may only have been available to Bank of Scotland, the British Linen Company Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland.  This letter does suggest that in 1837 the National Bank of Scotland was still required to pay Stamp Duty at the time of printing although the ability to have the Printer arrange this payment seems to have existed.

The letter appears to suggest that the bank note paper was retained by the Bank and delivered only to the printer when required for the printing of a new supply of bank notes.  I had never previously considered this although it is reasonable that the Bank would wish to ensure that the paper was secured and under Bank control.  Again I had not considered it but it also appears reasonable that the plates would be held under secure conditions and - rather than risk these to frequent journeys up and down the country - these would be retained by the London Agents.  What I do find surprising from this letter (and others) is the suggestion that the Bank wish to have security in place for the paper and the plates although appear content that printed (but unstamped) bank notes can be reatained by the printer.

Mungo Ponton was the Secretary of the National Bank of Scotland at this time although I have very little additional information regarding him.