Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Pound
| Issuer | Union Bank of Scotland Ltd. |
|---|---|
| Year | 1903 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Pound |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | The face is printed in blue with an intricate guilloche border framing the entire design. At the top centre, a central vignette shows two allegorical female figures flanking a crowned shield, with the inscription INCORPORATED BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT above. The large word ONE POUND is rendered in bold letterpress across the centre, with numeral 1 panels at upper left and right, and equestrian statues appear in vignettes at lower left and right. Date, serial letter, and signature lines for Cashier and Accountant appear in the lower portion, with a red diagonal SPECIMEN overprint across the face. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | INCORPORATED BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT THE UNION BANK OF SCOTLAND LIMITED ONE POUND By order of the Directors CASHIER ACCOT |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Union Bank of Scotland Ltd. was absorbed into the Bank of Scotland in 1955 after a merger that ended its independent note-issuing rights — notes from the early 1900s therefore represent one of the final decades of the Union Bank operating as a fully autonomous issuer. Founded in 1830 through the amalgamation of several regional Scottish banks, it maintained Edinburgh as its headquarters throughout.
Scottish commercial banks retained the legal right to issue their own notes under arrangements dating to well before the Bank Charter Act of 1844, which applied differently north of the border. That regulatory carve-out is precisely why a private joint-stock bank could still be printing its own pound notes in 1903.