10 Pounds Sterling

Bank of Scotland's £10 notes of this period occupied a curious position: legally, Scottish banknotes were never legal tender in the strict English sense, but they circulated freely by convention and mutual acceptance. The Bank of Scotland had been issuing its own notes since 1695, and by the 1870s its paper was trusted enough that few bothered to question the distinction.

Cotton paper was standard for Scottish issuers of this era, but survivability was poor — these high-value notes passed through relatively few hands before being retired, and the ledger-recording practices at Scottish branches meant most were cancelled with heavy ink or punch holes upon return. Uncancelled examples from this decade are genuinely uncommon.