[It.; = bank.] A term used to indicate the bank money of account in certain places, as distinguished from the current money or currency, when the latter had been depreciated from the earlier value retained by bankers in calculating exchanges with foreign countries. Thus at Hamburg, while the current mark was worth 1s. 11/16d., the mark banco was valued at 1s. 51/2d. sterling.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. VII. lxxxviii. 407. Exchange … 290 grosch per pound flemish banco.
1759. Chesterf., Lett., 350, IV. 158. The Specie, Banco, Usances, Agio.
1809. R. Langford, Introd. Trade, 28. Three Thousand Banco Marks [at Hamburgh].
