# Pictures of Pounds Sterling through the years?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pictures-of-pounds-sterling-through-the-years/368583>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 13, 2006, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pictures-of-pounds-sterling-through-the-years/368583 "2006-08-13T20:08:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pictures-of-pounds-sterling-through-the-years/368583/1 "2006-08-13T20:08:12Z")

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Anyone know of a website that has pictures/descriptions of UK Pounds Sterling through the years? In particular, the years from World War I until the currency was decimilized. However, pictures of even older banknotes would also be interesting.

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**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pictures-of-pounds-sterling-through-the-years/368583/2 "2006-08-13T21:19:31Z")

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From the Bank of England section on [banknotes.com](http://banknotes.com) comes this:

“By the request of the Bank of England we have removed all images of all banknotes  
from our Gallery that were issued by Bank of England. Only descriptions of those  
banknotes are provided and no photos displayed. To view Bank of England banknotes  
please go to Bank of England website.”

Might be tough to find online images, I guess. The BoE website only has recent issues.

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**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pictures-of-pounds-sterling-through-the-years/368583/3 "2006-08-13T21:30:03Z")

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Yes, this is the exact reason I initiially posted this thread. I’m quite sure I remember looking up some images of older UK notes. Is there a reason why the Bank of England doesn’t want old pictures of their notes available? I can’t imagine there is a black market in pre decimal era pound sterling?

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**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pictures-of-pounds-sterling-through-the-years/368583/4 "2006-08-13T21:46:31Z")

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It’s odd isn’t it. [This](http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/reproducing_banknotes.htm) page does seem to say that they are cool about it as long as permission is sought, and for older notes restrictions are looser. Perhaps our google-fu is weak?

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**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pictures-of-pounds-sterling-through-the-years/368583/5 "2006-08-14T05:35:29Z")

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Try eBay’s numismatic section. There are pictures of pound notes of various ages. Not all will be represented at any one time, but over several weeks, you should be able to right-click and store a number of examples.