Cornwall's Very Own Cornish Money!

"What's this?" you may ask, "Surely Cornwall doesn't have it's own money." Well here are the front and reverse of a Cornish ten shilling note. But, of course, all isn't as it seems ...

... in the 1970s there were attempts to distribute Cornwall's own money by the Cornish Stannary Parliament who, at the time, campaigned for the restitution of Cornwall's rights to govern itself. More details can be seen on their website.

On the 15th of December 1974, Frederick Trull, self styled as the 'clerk to the Stannary', announced that he was to issue banknotes in four denominations under the name of the Cornish National Fund.

However, in 1975 Mr. Trull had a bit of bother! He attempted to 'arrest' court officials at St.Austell's Magistrate's Court where he was being tried for a motoring offence. 

He produced twenty-five pages of documents to 'prove' that the court had no jurisdiction over him in Cornwall. He lost the case and was found guilty of using threatening words and behaviour with intent to breach the peace.

He was subsequently dismissed from his post as clerk to the Stannary and was expelled from the organisation.

As Trull's signature (see photo) was on the Cornish banknotes, issued in 1974, they were all destroyed by burning - but I still have one of the original banknotes - number 2450!

There is more on Cornish currency on Wikipedia and photos of Frederick Trull, with the Cornish currency, can be seen on the Alamy website.

Other Money Posts:
Cornwall's Streets Are Filled With Money Waiting To Be Picked Up!