Be it enacted by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1.— (1) Unless and until His Majesty by Proclamation otherwise directs—
a) The Bank of England, notwithstanding anything in any Act, shall not be bound to pay any note of the Bank (in this Act referred to as “a bank note”) in legal coin within the meaning of section six of the Bank of England Act, 1833, and bank notes shall not cease to be legal tender by reason that the Bank do not continue to pay bank notes in such legal coin:
b) Subsection (3) of section one of the Currency and Bank Notes Act, 1914 (which provides that the holder of a currency note shall be entitled to obtain payment for the note at its face value in gold coin) shall cease to have effect:
c) Section eight of the Coinage Act, 1870 (which entitles any person bringing gold bullion to the Mint to have it assayed, coined and delivered to him) shall, except as respects gold bullion brought to the Mint by the Bank of England, cease to have effect.
(2) So long as the preceding subsection remains in force the Bank of England shall be bound to sell to any person who makes a demand in that behalf at the head office of the Bank during the office hours of the Bank, and pays the purchase price in any legal tender, gold bullion at the price of three pounds, seventeen shillings and ten pence halfpenny per ounce troy of gold of the standard of fineness rescribed for gold coin by the Coinage Act, 1870, but only in the form of bars containing approximately four hundred ounces troy of fine gold.
2.— (1) Any money required for the purpose of exchange operations in connection with the return to a gold standard may be raised within two years after the passing of this Act in such manner as the Treasury think fit, and for that purpose they may create and issue, either within or without the United Kingdom and either in British or in any other currency, such securities bearing such rate of interest and subject to such conditions as to repayment, redemption or otherwise as they think fit, and may guarantee in such manner and on such terms and conditions as they think proper the payment of interest and principal of any loan which may be raised for such purpose aforesaid: Provided that any securities created or issued under this section shall be redeemed within two years of their date of issue, and no guarantee shall be given under this section so as to be in force after two years from the date upon which it is given.
(2) The principal and interest of any money raised under this Act, and any sums payable by the Treasury in fulfilling any guarantee given under this Act, together with any expense incurred by the Treasury in connection with, or with a view to the exercise of, their powers under this section shall be charged on the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom or the growing produce thereof.
(3) Where by any Appropriation Act passed after the commencement of this Act power is conferred on the Treasury to borrow money up to a specified amount, any sums which may at the time of the passing of that Act have been borrowed or guaranteed by the Treasury in pursuance of this section and are then outstanding shall be treated as having been raised in exercise of the power conferred by the said Appropriation Act and be the amount which may be borrowed under that Act shall be reduced accordingly.
3. This Act may be cited as the Gold Standard Act, 1925.
Source: Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers, House of Commons, 1924-1925, 163, vol. 1, p. 1167.
Banker’s Compositions Bill 1856 – Commons Debate Bank of England Act 1833
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