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1 Guinea = Pound 1 Shilling Sterling
| Issuer | Bank of Scotland |
|---|---|
| Year | 1774 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Unilateral note in letterpress, with a decorative guilloche border running vertically along the left margin. The denomination 'One Guinea' appears within an engraved panel at the top centre. The main body carries the full promise text in copperplate script and roman type, with the date 'Edin. 2 Febry. 1774' inscribed in manuscript at the upper right and a manuscript serial number at the upper left. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | One Guinea The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland oblige themselves to pay to or the Bearer ONE POUND ONE SHILLING Sterling on demand. By Order of the Court of Directors Edin. 2 Febry. 1774 |
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| Comments |
The guinea denomination — one pound one shilling — was a commercial courtesy as much as a monetary unit. By the 1770s, guinea pricing was entrenched in professional fees, land transactions, and luxury trade throughout Britain, and Scottish banks that refused to issue notes in this denomination risked being seen as out of step with mercantile practice. Bank of Scotland had been printing guinea notes since the early eighteenth century, making this series one of the longer-running examples of that denomination in Scottish banking history.
The 1774 date places this note squarely in the period immediately following the Ayr Bank collapse of 1772, which wiped out some £750,000 and triggered a severe credit contraction across Scotland. Surviving banks, including Bank of Scotland, found public trust in paper currency badly shaken — demand for lower-denomination notes dropped noticeably in the aftermath.