1 Pound National Bank of Scotland

Perkins Bacon's steel-engraving work for Scottish banks in this period was among the finest commercial note printing produced in Britain, and the National Bank of Scotland was one of their more consistent clients. The firm had built its reputation on intaglio security printing — their banknote and stamp contracts spanned dozens of issuing authorities across the Empire — and Scottish pound notes from this decade show the full depth of that technique.

The National Bank of Scotland was incorporated by royal charter in 1825 and operated independently until its 1959 merger with the Commercial Bank of Scotland to form the National Commercial Bank. Notes from the 1881–1890 window predate the consolidation of Scottish private note issuance by several decades, when a handful of chartered banks still competed openly for circulation.