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It is not clear why Coupons to the value of £159 were 'On Loan' at September 30th 1918. The Bank's records name the individuals and companies who held them - the largest amount (£102) being held by W H Ward & Co. F Ellison, who held £24, may be the Frank Ellison who was later appointed Assistant General Manager of the Birmingham Municipal Bank.

The 'Granted to Depositors' amount of £12 refers to Coupons that were lost or destroyed and subsequently replaced at the discretion of the Bank's Committee, as detailed in some examples below.

The Birmingham Corporation Savings Bank ceased to take deposits on October 31st 1919, and the temporary bank was finally wound up on April 15th 1921. In this final period, although no direct deposits were taken, Coupons to the value of £457 were sold, increasing the Bank's total liability from £198,294 to £198,751. However, the temporary Bank's Liquidation Account shows that in the period November 1st 1919 to April 15th 1921, the sum of £198,950 was repaid to Depositors or transferred to the Birmingham Municipal Bank - a discrepancy of £199, possibly due to the addition of a small amount of interest to Depositors' Balances.

 

These figures suggest that the value of all Coupons sold was eventually credited to passbook accounts with the Bank, an unlikely situation given how easy it must have been to lose or mislay such small pieces of paper. However, the Bank seems to have been very sympathetic to stories of mishaps in relation to Coupons, in each case reimbursing the Depositor.

 

Even as early as November 28th 1916, the Manager was reporting that "several cases of lost or burnt coupons have come to my notice". He then gave details of a case where "Miss Matheson of the Rates Office .... received her coupons from Mr Lancaster, the valuer, and on the same day, accidently threw the envelope containing them into the fire, being under the impression she had taken the coupons out".

 

·         November 14th 1917 - Rose Raney forwarded £1 of Coupons to the Bank for crediting to her account, but they had been lost in transit;

 

·        November 29th 1917 - coupons lost by E A Jarvis (6/-) and H Boyce (5/-);

 

·         June 18th 1918 - two employees of Messrs Chamberlain & Hookam (Yates and Clitheroe) had lost Coupons to the value of 9/- and 10/- respectively due to a fire occurring at their place of employment;

 

·         September 27th 1918 - at a recent fire at Messrs W Canning & Co of Great Hampton Street, Coupons to the value of 18/- belonging to Mr Cheatle were destroyed. The firm agreed to indemnify the Bank regarding the replacement of this sum;

 

·        December 2nd 1918 - the same fire at Messrs Canning & Co also destroyed coupons belonging to Harry J Walker of Handsworth (18/-) and George C Haynes of Smethwick (16/-). Miss Ethel Clark of Heeley Road, Selly Oak (a Welfare Supervisor) had inadvertently burned £2 of Coupons.

 

 

Following the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28th 1919, the provision of the Municipal Savings Banks (War Loan Investment) Act, 1916 that the bank shall not be carried on (otherwise than for the purpose of winding it up), after the expiration of three months from the termination of the present war was triggered. In anticipation of this event, the Bank's Management Committee had been making the necessary preparations for the replacement of the temporary Birmingham Corporation Savings Bank by the permanent Birmingham Municipal Bank.

 

Although the temporary Bank was considered a success, its labour intensive and complex coupon-based method of operation was not favoured for the permanent bank. Instead, a simple cash deposit/passbook-based system was preferred along the lines of that used by the Yorkshire Penny Bank, J P Hilton's former employer. The use of coupons by the Birmingham Municipal Bank in the future was not entirely discounted, however.

 

At a meeting of the Publicity Sub Committee in 1919 the question was raised "as to the issue of coupons after 31st August and as to whether same was permissible under the rules of the new Bank. As the subject did not come under the powers of your Sub-Committee to deal with they decided to call a special meeting of the Committee and requested the Acting Town Clerk to report upon the matter at that meeting".

 

That meeting was held at the Council House on Friday, August 29th 1919 - just three days before the Birmingham Municipal Bank came into operation. The Acting Town Clerk (F H C Wiltshire) included the following in a report regarding the transition from the temporary bank to the permanent bank:

 

I understand that a question has arisen as to whether the coupon system should be continued in connection with the Bank.

 

It will be remembered that this coupon system was, in the first instance, adopted in order that employers deducting monies from employees' wages might be able to give a receipt for such deducted monies to employees in the form of coupons. This consideration would not appear to obtain in the new Bank, and I certainly do not think that the use of coupons according to the practice in the existing Bank (viz. general distribution through employers or Banks and fixing upon cards in accordance with the system which has hitherto prevailed) would be possible in view of the rules which had been recommended to the Council by your Committee, and have been made by them. According to the regulations, the operations of the Bank must be in accordance with the rules, and as no mention of coupons is made in the rules I do not think they can now be employed. At the same time, it might be possible to distribute coupons which will be accepted as cash by the Bank on personal applications by the depositors in order to enable agents of the Bank to clinch the effect of their propagandist activities, but I suggest that the Committee consider whether such a course might not be undesirable as tending to produce a certain confusion of thought and practice on the part of intending depositors, who would be inclined to think that the issue of coupons is a continuance of the principle of the existing Saving Bank, of deposits of employees through their employers.

 

Therefore, on the basis of simplifying the deposit process, and making a clean break from the temporary bank's system, the use of coupons was abandoned. They were resurrected, however, when a school savings scheme was introduced in 1940.

 

At the same Management Committee meeting (August 29th 1919) Resolution Number 296 was passed:

 

RESOLVED:- That the Council be recommended at its meeting on the 21st October to pass a resolution under the Municipal Savings Banks (War Loan Investment) Act, 1916 winding up the existing Savings Bank as from that date, and in the meantime the Manager be instructed to send intimation to the various employers receiving monies by coupons that as from the 21st October the issue of coupons will cease.

 

At a Committee meeting held on November 3rd 1919, it was reported that "A letter has been sent by Mr Neville Chamberlain to all Joint Stock Banks requiring them to return coupons by the 31st October and expressing the Committee's appreciation of the assistance rendered by the Joint Stock Banks in connection with the work of the temporary Bank".

 

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Birmingham Corporation

Savings Bank