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1 Pound Sterling
| Issuer | Commercial Bank of Scotland |
|---|---|
| Year | 1861-1879 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Pound Sterling |
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| Obverse description | The upper portion of the note is dominated by a finely engraved allegorical vignette in intaglio, presenting a classical tableau of multiple figures — including a central standing female personification flanked by seated and reclining figures symbolic of commerce, industry, and abundance — rendered in the detailed steel-engraving style characteristic of Perkins, Bacon productions. The bank's name, THE COMMERCIAL BANK OF SCOTLAND, LIMITED, appears in bold serif lettering beneath the vignette, followed by the legend INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER. The promise-to-pay text is rendered in a combination of copperplate script and letterpress, reading "Promise to pay to the Bearer on demand ONE POUND Sterling at the Office here EDINBURGH," with denomination counters ONE in oval cartouches at upper left and right corners within a guilloche border frame. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | UNDER ACT 16 & 17 VICT. CAP. 63. ONE THE COMMERCIAL BANK OF SCOTLAND, LIMITED INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER Promise to pay to the Bearer on demand One Pound Sterling at the Office here EDINBURGH By order of the Court of Directors p. Accountant p. Cashier |
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| Comments |
The Commercial Bank of Scotland was one of the Edinburgh joint-stock banks that survived the catastrophic collapse of the Western Bank in 1857 and the City of Glasgow Bank in 1878 — the latter wiping out thousands of shareholders under unlimited liability. This note spans exactly that period of maximum instability in Scottish provincial banking, which makes the Commercial Bank's continued operation and eventual 1874 merger with the National Bank of Scotland all the more significant to trace through surviving paper.
Perkins, Bacon brought their steel-engraving expertise to Scottish private note production, though their plate work here is less elaborate than their contemporary security printing for colonial postal issues.