10 guinea note, Great Yarmouth Bank

Civic emblems such as the coat of arms or seal of a town were often placed on notes, stressing local identity and perhaps acting, unofficially, as a badge of authority. This charming late eighteenth-century note carries the arms of the seaside town of Great Yarmouth. The arms combine three lion's heads from the Royal Arms with the tails of three silver herrings, believed to come from the original arms of Yarmouth.