The history of banking

A large collection of old banking documents and artefacts, some dating back to 1810, will be moved from Sliema, probably to Valletta, over the coming months.

In the meantime, however, anyone wishing to see the small museum detailing Bank of Valletta's history, can do so on weekdays in the morning. The museum is housed at the bank's head office in High Street, Sliema.

The museum's curator, Victor Tortell, who followed in his father's footsteps and joined the banking world in 1955, enthusiastically explains the significance of the material that fills every nook and cranny of the space available.

Bank of Valletta decided to set up the museum in 1997 when a number of artefacts that had been stored over the years were put on display.

Bank of Valletta has a rather long history, part of which is still unfolding as shareholders are still clamouring for compensation after the National Bank had been nationalised following a "run" on both the National Bank and its subsidiary, Tagliaferro Bank.

As the matter is still subject to litigation, Mr Tortell diplomatically explains that this part of the bank's history exists, is documented but the records are not "on show" because the matter is still in court.

But the museum still has a lot of interesting items on display.

Documents and artefacts belonging to the Anglo Maltese Bank, the Banco di Malta, set up in 1812, as well as Tagliaferro Bank and Scicluna's Bank line the hall and offer more than a bird's-eye view of how the world of banking has changed over the years.

A cash book dated 1810 is the oldest exhibit in the museum and transactions in it are in Scudi, Targ and Grani. The oldest known chequebook, dating from 1843, is also on view.

"The term Cisk came as a result of people breaking down the word cheque when Scicluna's Bank was set up in 1830 and started paying its employees by cheque. The bank was popularly known as il-bank tac-cisk because of this," Mr Tortell explained.

The list of shareholders of the Banco di Malta has some interesting names, including the historian Onorato Bres and Vincenzo Borg Brared, the head of the Maltese battalion against the French during the blockade.

An Austrian safe, made by Wertheim and bought by Tagliaferro Bank in July 1911, is also on display, as are old savings pass books and bearer account books of various banks.

Signatures of businessmen involved in banks at the time, such as John B. Francia, Arthur Zammit Cutajar and Count Edward Sant Fournier, can be seen on a number of documents. Several old photos tell a story in their own way and old ledgers, that must contain many secrets about people's savings and transactions, are preserved in the museum.

Banks were always trying to find shortcuts in counting money and the museum boats a pair of scales, dated 1811, on which bags containing £100 in £1 coins were weighed.

Old calculating and adding machines and the letter press with which copies were made before the advent of carbon paper, can also be seen.

"It is important to preserve such items for posterity. In an age where things change so fast, these items enable us to see the world of banking as it was then. It's not that long ago, but it seems so far away," he said.

And as if to prove his point, Mr Tortell moves towards one of the old staff group photos: "That's me in a photo taken in the 1950s... and that's my father," he said.