I was disappointed to see that First Trust Bank, a commercial bank based in Northern Ireland, will stop issuing its own brand of banknotes. Under different names , First Trust has been in the business of providing paper money for almost two hundred years, starting with the Provincial Bank of Ireland back in 1825. Source: First Trust 99.9% of the world's population uses government-issued banknotes. A small sliver of us—those who live in Northern Island, Scotland, Hong Kong, and Macau—get to use privately-issued banknotes. Prior to First Trust's announcement, I count twelve private issuers scattered across the globe: Northern Ireland : Bank of Ireland, Danske Bank (formerly Northern Bank), First Trust Bank, and Ulster Bank Scotland : Bank of Scotland, Clydesdale Bank and The Royal Bank of Scotland Hong Kong : HSBC, Standard Chartered, Bank of China (Hong Kong) Macau : Banco Nacional Ultramarino, Bank of China (Macau) Now there are just eleven. To our modern sensibilities, priv