Honoured by Banknotes

Chapter 16 Honoured by banknotes I.S. Ruddock1, A. Whitaker2 & M.W. Collins3 1Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde,United Kingdom. 2Department of Physics, Queen’s University of Belfast, United Kingdom. 3College of Engineering, Design and Physical Sciences,Brunel University London, United Kingdom. Abstract A frequent theme of a nation’s paper currency is the honouring of its past distinguished citizens. Usually, the paper money also features the areas of their achievements. The UK, unique in having no less than eight banks issuing paper money, is no exception. Kelvin has been so honoured over a period of some 30 years by Scotland’s Clydesdale Bank and currently the Bank of England commemorates Boulton and Watt. Another theme of banknotes is significant architecture, and the University of Glasgow, Queen’s University, Belfast and King’s College, Aberdeen (now the University of Aberdeen) have all featured over long periods of time. In this concluding chapter all the above are discussed, the dominant emphasis being on Kelvin himself. 1 Introduction: the UK, its political history and its banknotes 1.1 Paper money – an introduction One of the key functions of the nationstate is to provide its citizens with legal currency in the form of coinage and paper (sometimes plastic) money. The latter forms the subject of this chapter. Historically, they were often and still are issued by banks – hence, the widespread use of the term banknotes. Besides their essential purpose,notes, in common with postage stamps and coinage, have added value as collectors’ items. In fact, the bulk of the entire background material for both the UK notes themselves, and the political history which gave rise to them, may be found in a tripartite set of catalogues of World Paper Money [1–3]. These are frequently updated, forming a recent set at the time of writing. Banknotes have no inherent value and rest for their effectiveness on mutual economic confi- dence. Briefly to digress, this differs from the original concept of coinage whose value reflected its metal content, for example, gold and silver. These days coinage, too, has virtually no inherent value.Returning to the notes, two key attributes can be identified. Firstly, above all else, notes have to be designed and manufactured to be proof against forgery. This has resulted in complex products containing many security features.What is more significant for us, however, is that the very designscan become a political statement of the nationstate. We take three major world examples:the United States, the People’s Republic of China and the European Single Currency. Notes are, respectively, issued by the United States Treasury WIT Transactions on State of the Art in Science and Engineering, Vol 89, © 2015 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1755-8336 (on-line) doi:10.2495/978-1-84564-149-8/017 408 Kelvin, thermodynamics and the natural world Table 1: Designs on Paper Money for three major world currencies. Country Currency Obverse designs Reverse designs USA (2006 Series) US$ US Presidents + Federal independence buildings(various) notables PR China(2005 Series) Yuan Mao Tse-tung Natural features + (various) buildings (various) European Union (single Euro Architecture(various) Map of Europe, EU flag currency area) (2002 Series) + bridges (various) (Federal Reserve Notes), the People’s Bank of China and the European Central Bank. Hence, the description banknotes still has meaning. Table 1 (information from [3]) summarises the features of the obverse (front) and reverse (back) sides. Table 1 shows that the US notes emphasise the US’s historical independence and the Republic, the Chinese notes the Communist State, and the European notes the ethos of the trans-national European Union. Prior to the inception of the Euro currency, taking three of the larger constituent nations as examples, Germany, France and Italy all featured past eminent citizens and their accomplishments. 1.2. Political history of the UK In addition to the significance of current paper money, past issues of currency notes reflect the political history of a nation and the UK is unique in having eight banks issuing legal paper money. The UK’s full title is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Four political entities are involved: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland: Table 2 givesa timeline,which summarises the history (information from a ‘popular’ encyclopedia [4]). Much warfare was involved! *Items* refer to banknote history. Important comments: 1. In England, the issue of banknotes by private and commercial banks is ‘a very complex story’ [1, p. 643]. Only the Bank of England now issues legal currency. 2. In Scotland, there were a considerable number of commercial and private banks. Various amalgamations of the former occurred and today three note-issuing banks exist – Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of Scotland and Clydesdale Bank (all details in ‘Scotland’ sections in [1–3]). 3. In Ireland, similar to Scotland, a number of commercial banks existed and issued notes. In 1921,this was continued by the banks in Northern Ireland. Today, four note-issuing banks exist – Bank of Ireland, First Trust Bank, Northern Bank (now Danske Bank) and Ulster Bank(details in ‘Ireland-Republic’ section of [1], ‘Ireland’ and ‘Ireland-Northern’ of [2] and ‘Northern Ireland’ of [3]). 4. Since 1960, a portrait of Queen Elizabeth IIhas always appeared on Bank of England notes. Only four previous monarchs have sofeatured: King George IV (1820–1830), King William IV (1830–1837) and Queen Victoria (1837–1901) on: WIT Transactions on State of the Art in Science and Engineering, Vol 89, © 2015 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1755-8336 (on-line) Honoured by banknotes 409 Table 2: UK political history and first banknote issues. England 829 King Egbert of Wessex accepted as overlord of all England [4, p. 288] 1066 Norman Conquest. William the Conqueror becomes king of England 1603 James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England 1649 Setting up of Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell 1660 Restoration of monarchy (Charles II) *1694 Bank of England founded, nationalised in 1946 [2, p. 574; 4, p. 76]* Wales(termed a Principality) 1277 Edward 1st of England accepted as overlord of Wales[4, p. 872] 1536–1543 Acts of Union between England and Wales: Welsh representation in the English Parliament *1694 Bank of England notes cover Wales also* Scotland 9th century Scotland united by Kenneth McAlpin [4, p. 739] 1603 Personal Union of Scottish and English kings (James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England) *1695 Bank of Scotland issues first notes[2, p. 1062]* 1707 Act of Union with England: new state termed Great Britain Ireland Henry II of England (1133–1189) accepted as overlord[4, pp. 388/429, 430] 1782 Independence granted to Irish Parliament 1801 Act of Union—Irish representation in British parliament, new state termed United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland *1797 Bank of Ireland issues first notes [2, p. 721]* 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty: Irish Free State in South, 6 Northern Counties becoming Northern Ireland, new state termed United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Commercial Bank of Scotland notes from 1827 to 1853 [1,p. 1019] Provincial Bank of Ireland notesfrom 1825 to 1901 [2, p. 730] King George V (1910–1936) on UK treasury notes from 1914 to 1928 [2, pp. 541–542]. This sequence displays the UK title changefrom Ireland to Northern Ireland. 5. Devolved Government exists, currently as follows: For Scotland: the Scottish Parliamentwith the Scottish Government For Wales: the National Assembly for Wales with the Welsh Government For Northern Ireland: the Northern Ireland Assembly with the Northern Ireland Executive. 1.3 Notes of Scotland and Northern Ireland Scotland and Northern Ireland, then, are constituent political units within the United Kingdom. Despite its name, the Bank of England issues legal tender notes for the entire UK. What of the Scotland and Northern Ireland notes? They mainly circulate within their respective areas, although from about the 1970s the notes had the word Sterling added to Pounds (e.g. Royal Bank WIT Transactions on State of the Art in Science and Engineering, Vol 89, © 2015 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1755-8336 (on-line) 410 Kelvin, thermodynamics and the natural world of Scotland [3, p. 875] and Bank of Ireland [3, p. 750] emphasising their legal currency status within the whole of the UK. This has significance for the banknote designs. Whereas the Bank of England notes represent the UK as a whole, the Scotland and Northern Ireland notes represent their respective local political units. This does not mean their prominent citizens so honoured have only local status. The Scotsman Adam Smith epitomises this. Adam Smith is regarded as the father of economics. He was a peer of James Watt, and this is discussed in Chapter 7, in Section Watt and the Age of Enlightenment. As shown in Table 3, he featured not only on the Clydesdale notes from 1981 to 2008 but also on the current £20 Bank of England notes. 2 Kelvin and the University of Glasgow 2.1 Banknote details These are given in Table 4. Table 3: Banknote details: Adam Smith. Bank Banknote series Obverse Design Reverse design References A. Clydesdale £50: Various Adam Smith: Blacksmith’s [3, pp. 869–871] 1981–2008 public address & farm implements/ sailing ships £50: 2001, [3, p. 872] Univ. Glasgow, 550th B. B. of £20 2006 Queen E II Adam Smith [3, p. 425] England portrait: pin factory & quote* *Quote: The division of labour in pin manufacturing: (and the great increase inthe quantity of work that results). Table 4: Banknote details: Kelvin &and the University of Glasgow. Bank Banknote series Obverse design Reverse design References Clydesdale A.

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