100 Pounds Sterling

The British Linen Company — chartered in 1746 ostensibly to develop the Scottish linen trade — had long since pivoted to banking by 1810, though it retained its textile name until amalgamation with the Bank of Scotland in 1969. A £100 note from this institution was not a retail instrument. At a time when a skilled Edinburgh tradesman earned perhaps £40 a year, this denomination moved between merchants, lawyers, and landed estates.

Scottish banknotes of this period operated under a notably permissive legal framework compared to England, where the Bank of England held jealously guarded privileges. Scottish private banks issued freely, and the British Linen Company was among the most conservative and solvent of them — its notes generally trusted without question across the central belt.

Survivorship at this denomination is extremely low. Most high-value notes were presented for payment promptly and cancelled.