short for Bank-note, and always usedfor a one-pound note, the common currency. A note = L1.
1864. J. Rogers, `New Rush,' pt. ii. p. 28:
«A note's so very trifling, it's no sooner chang'd than gone;
For it is but twenty shillings.»
1875. Wood and Lapham, `Waiting for Mail,' p. 39:
«And even at half fifty notes a week
You ought to have made a pile.»
1884. Marcus Clarke, `Memorial Volume,' p. 92:
«I lent poor Dick Snaffle a trotting pony I had, and he soldhim for forty notes.»
A glossary of provincial and local words used in England by Francis Grose
In commerce, a bank-note intended to be transmitted to a distant place by mail, and made payable to ...
Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.
A glossary of provincial and local words used in England by Francis Grose