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Waterlow and Sons Limited was a major worldwide engraver of currency,
postage stamps A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the fa ...
,
stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...
s and bond certificates based in London, Watford and Dunstable in England. The company was founded as a family business in 1810. It was acquired in 1961 by De La Rue.


Early history

Waterlow and Sons originated from the business of James Waterlow, who began producing lithographic copies of legal documents at Birchin Lane in London in 1810. The company gradually grew; it began printing stamps in 1852, and Waterlow's sons Alfred, Walter,
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountains ...
and Albert joined the business. James Waterlow died in 1876, and the company became a limited-liability company. In 1877, due to a family dispute, the company split, and Alfred and his sons formed Waterlow Bros. & Layton. The two companies later reunited in 1920. In 1924, the company printed 1, 5 and 10  toman banknotes that bore the watermark of
Lion and Sun The Lion and Sun ( fa, شیر و خورشید, Šir-o xoršid, ; Classical Persian: ) is one of the main emblems of Iran ( Persia), and was an element in Iran's national flag until the 1979 Iranian Revolution and is still commonly used by op ...
for the first time.


Portuguese banknote crisis

Waterlow's, under the leadership of William Waterlow, was involved in the Portuguese Bank Note Crisis of 1925. The
Banco de Portugal The Banco de Portugal (English: Bank of Portugal) is the central bank of the Portuguese Republic. The bank was founded by royal charter in 1846, during the reign of Queen Maria II of Portugal, by a merger of the '' Banco de Lisboa'' (Bank of Lis ...
sued Waterlow & Sons in the High Court in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...
because of
counterfeiting To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...
. In one of the most complex trials in legal history, the case was finally settled in favour of the Bank in 1932. William Waterlow retired from Waterlow's and was subsequently elected as the 602nd
Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional power ...
.


Bank of England banknotes

In 1921 the
Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government o ...
gained a legal
monopoly A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...
on the issue of banknotes in England and Wales, a process that started with the
Bank Charter Act The Bank Charter Act 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. 32), sometimes referred to as the Peel Banking Act of 1844, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, passed under the government of Robert Peel, which restricted the powers of British banks ...
of 1844 when the ability of other banks to issues notes was restricted. On 22 November 1928 the Bank issued notes for ten
shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currency, currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 1 ...
s and one pound for the first time when the Bank took over responsibility for these denominations from the Treasury which had issued notes of these denominations three days after the declaration of
war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
in 1914 in order to remove gold
coin A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to ...
s from circulation. The treasury bills had been printed by Waterlows, and the loss of the contract contributed to the closure of Waterlow's operations at Milton Street in
Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, an ...
.


De La Rue ownership

Waterlow's was acquired by
Purnell and Sons Purnell and Sons started out as a small family printers based in Somerset which merged with other printers over the next 100 years to become one the largest print groups in the UK and at one time a major publisher. History The company was found ...
in 1961, but Purnell sold Waterlow's segment that printed banknotes, postage stamps, traveler's checks, and bonds to
De La Rue De La Rue plc (, ) is a British company headquartered in Basingstoke, England, that designs and produces banknotes, secure polymer substrate and banknote security features (including security holograms, security threads and security printe ...
soon after. In 2003 De La Rue acquired the
banknote A banknote—also called a bill ( North American English), paper money, or simply a note—is a type of negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issue ...
printing operations of the Bank of England,Bank of England: Sale of Bank Note Printing Operations
/ref> 75 years after Waterlow's had lost the business. Waterlow and Sons Ltd was dissolved in January 2009 but re-incorporated as a dormant company in November 2016.


Gallery

up Durban Roodeport Deep Limited gold mine share warrant c. 1890s. Modderfontein B. Gold Mines Limited dividend coupon.jpg, Modderfontein B. Gold Mines Limited dividend coupon. (c. 1900) Bolivia 1c Waterlow specimen revenue stamps.JPG, Revenue stamps of Bolivia. North Borneo 1911 Specimen Stamps.jpg, Stamps of North Borneo. (1911) International Certificates of Vaccination (1977).jpg, Int. Certi­ficates of Vacci­nation.


References


Further reading

* Waterlow, Chris. ''The House of Waterlow: A Printer's Tale''. Matador, 2013. * Williams, L. N. and M. ''A Century Of Stamp Production, 1852-1952''. London: Waterlow & Sons, Limited, 1952 44p.


External links

{{Authority control Printing companies of the United Kingdom Banknote printing companies Design companies established in 1897 Design companies disestablished in 2009 1897 establishments in England 2009 disestablishments in England