I promise to pay the bearer on demand

[ady]

Who remembers this on notes? and anyone idea when it was last able to be applied to sterling?

[sixgun]

Up until 1914 i suspect. The sovereign was withdrawn from circulation, so clearly banks would not be handing out a coin that was not in circulation.
 

[TeaTime]

The phrase is still on all current banknotes (they've just made it a lot smaller). As for sterling - up until precious metals stopped being used, all coins had an intrinsic value so no promises were required.

[SidS]

Between 4th and 7th Aug 1914 - UK entered war on 4th, emergency treasury notes entered circulation on 7th. Government suspended gold payments sometime in this window.

Gold remained in circulation for a while but when each coin got paid into the banks it didn't come back out. So by summer 1915, gold was more or less gone.

https://www.royalmint.com/sovereign/the-sovereign-in-the-first-world-war/

The wording has remained on banknotes even though the redemption ended with WWI. It's true that silver coins remained in circulation much longer, but silver coins were only 'token' coinage, as they were not struck at full face value weight and hadn't been since 1816. So silver shouldn't really be considered in the same light.

[Arganto]

What does the promise get you in modern times? Part shares in a failing bank?

[SidS]

12 minutes ago, Arganto said:

What does the promise get you in modern times? Part shares in a failing bank?

Probably the right to swap it for another note.

[SiCole]

52 minutes ago, Arganto said:

What does the promise get you in modern times? Part shares in a failing bank?

It technically makes you a creditor to their business. Right at the bottom of the list.

[bluemoon]

It's still on there isn't it? I'm looking at my £20 right now and it says it on the Queen facing side right below where it says Bank of England. Not sure exactly what it pretends to be promising now though? 20 pounds of shrinking illusions? Now that's a promise they can keep their word on!

[GoldStatue]

In reality the saying is probably about as worthless as the term legal tender.

In some ways I'd probably miss all these little idiosyncrasies we have with our money if we went over to a digital currency, someone slipping in a foreign coin in to your change or seeing the queen's portrait every day 😀

[LawrenceChard]

7 hours ago, SidS said:

Probably the right to swap it for another note.

Correct!

😎

[GoldenGriffin]

I read about this a number of years ago, "I Promise to Pay The Bearer ..." on really old bank notes was written in proper case text which is the correct legal way to write the legal document.

Today, those words on our notes are all in uppercase letters, which means it can't be formed as part of the legal document because it doesn't mean anything.

The notes have margins on the left and right sides of the notes and anything in the left or right sides of the margins are not deemed to be part of the document... if you look at a £20 note today, the "£20" is in the left margin and a "20" without the "£" sign is on the document.  So, what we PROMISE to pay is meaningless and to pay "20" of something - it doesn't stipulate what it is, all we know is that it's 20 of something.

On a positive note, I like the artwork on the notes... now then, where's my monopoly board and money! 😄 

Edited November 16, 2022 by GoldenGriffin
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[Britannia47]

Here’s an old note from 1934. Worth a lot more then!

[SidS]

9 minutes ago, Britannia47 said:

Here’s an old note from 1934. Worth a lot more then!

I love these... I've stockpiled a few. Most aren't as nice as this one though! I've got a few of the wartime ones too.