Carmarthen Furnace Bank

This is a bank established in Carmarthenshire in the 18th century as a result of the efforts of a Welsh entrepreneur and businessman called John Morgan. The banking business started by issuing tokens to facilitate an iron and tin works operation and then developed into a full-fledged bank. However, few records of the works, or the bank, exist.

The date of establishment of the Carmarthen and Furnace Bank is unknown. However, in 1909 a copper plate for the printing of the Bank’s notes was found in the River Cothi, and a rubbing from the copper plate, in the possession of Carmarthenshire Antiquarian Society, indicates that the Bank must have been founded in the decade commencing with the year 1790.

The Bank was established by John Morgan, senior, the owner in 1778 of the Carmarthen Tin Works, who also issued a number of copper tokens to help his business at the works.

His father, Robert Morgan, had established the Cwmdwyfran Iron Works and John Morgan, senior, continued the works for many years. The date of origin of these works is not known, but the works was producing in 1740. In 1750, 120 tons of bar-iron were manufactured. The remains of the Iron Works at Furnace Bank are now located in a builder’s merchants yards and were built by Robert Morgan in 1748. The foundry made guns and shot for the Board of Ordnance until 1760. The tin mills were added in 1761, and tin plate production continued until 1900.

Cwmdwyfran Iron Works was engraved on some of the tokens issued by the Works, in 1792, in order to facilitate the business. These were payable in London, Bristol and Carmarthen. The only known illustration of the Cwmdwyfran Iron Works is the engraving contained on the copper tokens. Although the making of such coins was illegal, the shortage of small coins had become so acute that in 1792, the prohibition was, in many cases, ignored.

In a letter written in 1899 by Mrs C. I. W. Morgan, wife of Mr Charles Morgan (the last male of his line), she states that, on looking through some old papers, she found a legal permission to Mr John Morgan of Furnace House, Carmarthen, to start a bank in that town, but the letter contains no other details of this document, or its date.

...
Wikipedia