1 Guinea = 1 Pound 1 Shilling Sterling

The guinea denomination — 21 shillings — was a peculiarity of Scottish private banking in the early nineteenth century, used to sidestep the legal restrictions that governed pound-denominated notes under English law. Scottish banks exploited the fact that the 1765 Act forbidding notes under 20 shillings did not technically cover a 21-shilling instrument, giving them flexibility in small-denomination circulation that English country banks lacked.

The Commercial Bank of Scotland was founded in 1810, so the earliest issues in this series date from the bank's first year of operation. Notes from the opening years of a newly chartered institution — before redundant stock was accumulated — tend to survive in far smaller numbers than mid-series issues.