1 Pound

The Union Bank of Scotland — formed in 1830 through the merger of the Glasgow Union Banking Company and several smaller west-coast institutions — was, by the 1860s, one of the major commercial banks still exercising Scotland's unique right of private note issue. That right, grandfathered under the Bank Notes (Scotland) Act of 1845, froze each bank's authorized circulation at its 1844 average and required gold or Bank of England notes to back any excess. In practice, the Union Bank consistently issued at or near its statutory ceiling.

This series predates the bank's 1882 absorption into the Bank of Scotland by roughly two decades. Notes from the 1863–1866 window are scarce — the Union Bank recalled and destroyed outdated notes with reasonable efficiency.