The Bank's staff used a large variety of rubber stamps as part of their everyday activities,
particularly cashiers prior to the computerisation
of the Bank's records.
The following are examples of some of these stamps:
Branch Name stamp:
used on passbooks and any form requiring
the branch to be identified. These stamps
were produced in a variety of patterns
and type
Datal stamp:
used by branch staff as a general receipt on utility bills, credit transfers, etc.; they were also used by Head Office
departments, including
Safe Deposit.
Number 2 Department:
placed on deposit and withdrawal slips, transfer forms,
etc to clarify which Department the relevant account is
in
Oval branch stamp:
general purpose branch identification stamp
NOT IN PASS BOOK:
placed on a transaction slip that has been entered in the Bank's records, but not in the depositor's passbook. The
posted transaction in the ledger was marked accordingly so that it will be entered in the passbook at its next presentation at the
branch
ADVICE:
placed on deposit slips for an account at another branch, as shown on this example for a deposit for 7/4d for a
No 2 Department account
at Sparkhill branch
Annual Interest:
placed in passbooks against the entry of the annual interest credit. New stamps were issued to branches each year,
and old stamps would often be amended with a razor blade so that they could be used for preceding years with a suitable annotation.
Transfer:
marked against transferred amounts in passbooks
Acknowledgement of Registration stamp:
placed on documents (eg on the back of Death Certificates) presented for recording in the
Bank's books.
Reads:
Registered in the books of the Birmingham Municipal Bank.
Spaces to enter:
Account Number
Date
Initials of Officer
Special Stamps:
produced and used for one-off purposes. The top example was used for passbooks and ledger accounts on the
closure of Sherlock Street, when all outstanding accounts were transferred to Horse Fair branch.
The second example was impressed
in some copies of the Regulations;
and in passbooks, early passbooks having had the rate of interest printed therein.
Post Received Stamp:
used by Head Office's Secretarial Department to record when correspondence etc was received.
Ledger Stamps:
used to identify particular types of Account
or
to indicate some particular action taken, eg:
- IR = Account advised to Inland Revenue on Annual Return
where
Interest Credited exceeded amount specified by Tax
Authorities as
requiring reporting
- Serial Number of Home Safe Issued to Depositor
- Auditor having confirmed
passbook balance with ledger
- Depositor(s) granted a Mortgage
- Account details transferred to
a new ledger
(Except for 'IR', 'MORTGAGE GRANTED', and
'TRANSFERRED TO NEW LEDGER' the stamp may also have
been impressed on the Depositor's Passbook)
Passbook Stamps:
producing the passbook of a
closed account enabled that account to be renewed rather than a completely new account
being opened. This did not apply after
computerisation, and blank pages were stamped
'CANCELLED'
This portion of a passbook illustrated
shows examples of a rubber stamp used to:
- enter a deposit (with its date) which replaced
the Bank's
original system of a manual entry
- indicate the amount of Capitalised Interest
- show the conversion
of the account balance at
Decimalisation
As with deposits, a stamp eventually replaced the word
"Repaid" that was originally written in passbooks against a withdrawal transaction
Credit Advice S/D and Credit Advice:
place it in passbooks
against N.I.P.B. (NOT IN PASS BOOK) deposits that were
received from employers as Salary Credits or Deductions from Wages. A later
version
omitted the 'S/D'.
Address Stamps:
four types of stamp used for mail, etc:
- Bank Title
- Branch Name and Designatory Letter(s)
in this example, AD = Farcroft branch
- Branch Address
in this example, Farcroft branch
-
Branch Name and Address
(Smethwick and Head Office)
Branch Designatory Letters/Numbers:
Impressed into a passbook, prior to the numerical account number, to indicate the branch at which
the account was kept
('HB' indicating Heybarnes branch and 'SS' indicating Sherlock Street branch)
later replaced by an all-numerical system ('55' indicating Smethwick branch,
'2' indicating an account
in the No 2 Department)