2 Shillings 04.1942, Jersey
in Banknotes Book | Number: JE4 |
Years of issue: | 04.1942 |
Edition: | -- |
Signatures: | Treasurer of the states: Mr. H. F. Ereaut |
Serie: | 1942 Issue |
Specimen of: | 04.1942 |
Material: | Cotton fiber |
Size (mm): | 108 x 70 |
Printer: | TDLR (Thomas de la Rue & Company), London |
* All pictures marked are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.
** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.

Description
Watermark:
On the edge of the banknote are 2 woven lines.
Avers:
The coat of arms of Jersey top left.
The coat of arms of Jersey is a red shield with three gold leopards passant guardant (les trois léopards in French). It derives from the seal granted to the island’s bailiff by Edward I in 1279. In 1907, Edward VII sanctioned the claimed usage by the island of the arms. It is very similar to the arms of Normandy, Guernsey and England.
On the background is a pencil drawing, depicting a cart and two horses in silhouette, drowned by Mr.Edmund Blampied in 1926 (Jersey Vraicing).
Edmund Blampied (30 March 1886, Saint Martin, Jersey - 26 August 1966, St Aubin, Jersey) was one of the most eminent artists to come from the Channel Islands, yet he received no formal training in art until he was 16 years old. He was noted mostly for his etchings and drypoints published at the height of the print boom in the 1920s, but was also a lithographer, caricaturist, cartoonist, book illustrator and artist in oils, watercolours, silhouettes and bronze.
Jersey Vraicing.
A local seaweed, used for manure, and up to the 18th century dried and burnt as fuel. Two carefully regulated Vraic harvests were held every year in February and June.
The main use of vraic is for spreading over potato fields during the winter. It is then ploughed into the soil before the potatoes are planted in late winter and spring. Vraic was traditionally gathered by horse and cart in Grouville Bay and St Ouen's Bay and the practice continues using tractors and trailers, although the quantity taken has diminished over the years.
Over the years the sea has claimed the lives of many vraic collectors. Jersey's early burial registers rarely recorded anything other than the name of the deceased and some relationships, but there are frequent references to death by drowning, and many which add that the tragedy occurred while vraic was being collected. It was not uncommon for a party of several related vraic collectors to perish together, presumably when caught by the incoming tide.
Revers:
On the background is a pencil drawing, depicting a cart and two horses in silhouette, drowned by Mr.Edmund Blampied in 1926 (Jersey Vraicing).
Edmund Blampied (30 March 1886, Saint Martin, Jersey - 26 August 1966, St Aubin, Jersey) was one of the most eminent artists to come from the Channel Islands, yet he received no formal training in art until he was 16 years old. He was noted mostly for his etchings and drypoints published at the height of the print boom in the 1920s, but was also a lithographer, caricaturist, cartoonist, book illustrator and artist in oils, watercolours, silhouettes and bronze.
Jersey Vraicing.
A local seaweed, used for manure, and up to the 18th century dried and burnt as fuel. Two carefully regulated Vraic harvests were held every year in February and June.
The main use of vraic is for spreading over potato fields during the winter. It is then ploughed into the soil before the potatoes are planted in late winter and spring. Vraic was traditionally gathered by horse and cart in Grouville Bay and St Ouen's Bay and the practice continues using tractors and trailers, although the quantity taken has diminished over the years.
Over the years the sea has claimed the lives of many vraic collectors. Jersey's early burial registers rarely recorded anything other than the name of the deceased and some relationships, but there are frequent references to death by drowning, and many which add that the tragedy occurred while vraic was being collected. It was not uncommon for a party of several related vraic collectors to perish together, presumably when caught by the incoming tide.
Bottom left is an autograph of Edmund Blampied.
Comments:
The lack of currency in Jersey led to a request to design bank notes for the States of Jersey in denominations of 6 pence, 1 shilling, 2 shillings, 10 shillings and 1 pound, which were issued in April 1942. The 6d note was designed by Blampied in such a way that the word six on the reverse incorporated an outsized "X" so that when the note was folded, the result was the resistance symbol "V" for victory. A year later he was asked to design six new postage stamps for the island of ½ d to 3 d, and as a sign of resistance he cleverly incorporated the initials GR in the three penny stamp to display loyalty to King George VI. The only exhibition of his work during the war years was held at the Cleveland Museum of Art from February 1941 which showed 187 works mostly from the collection of Harold J Baily, an American lawyer who had been a notable patron of Blampied since 1927. The etching A Jersey vraic cart, which Blampied had just managed to have printed and signed before the island was invaded, was issued by the Print Club of Cleveland to coincide with the exhibition.
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