A donor has offered us an unusual dental item. It is a mock banknote, drawn
on the 'Woodmancoat Bank Glocestershire', with the inscription 'I Promise to
pay to Mr Thos Bolus/ or bearer on demand the Sum of Two-Pence for Sir Wm
Dentist,/Hellebore, Camphire & Self 27th day of Septr. 1795'. The note is
signed 'Jn Spencer'. In the upper left corner it bears an engraving of a
dentist pulling a tooth, with the legend 'NUMQUAM NON PARATUS' ('never
unprepared') below.
An almost identical note, dated 1799, is in the collection of Cheltenham
Museum. It is described in the Woodmancote Parish Book by H Denham (see
http://www.woodmancoteparish.freeserve.co.uk/w'cotebook/chapter6/chap6-6.htm
). The Woodmancote Book mentions a second banknote which may well be the one
given to us.
Does anyone know anything more about these items?
Regards
Simon Chaplin
--------------------------------------------
Simon Chaplin
Senior Curator, Museums of The Royal College of Surgeons of England
T. +44 (0)20 7869 6570
F. +44 (0)20 7869 6564
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W. http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/
