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!
100 Pounds Sterling
| Issuer | Clydesdale Banking Company |
|---|---|
| Year | 1868 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 100 Pounds Sterling |
| 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 obverse is printed in blue intaglio with red letterpress elements on white cotton paper. A central guilloche-framed vignette shows a large tree, flanked by elaborate scrollwork and rosette underprints; the denomination £100 is boldly rendered in red at centre within an oval guilloche border. The word 'Hundred' appears in ornate script at lower left, with the issuer name 'CLYDESDALE BANKING COMPANY' arching across the central panel and a promise-to-pay text running beneath, along with spaces for Manager and Accountant signatures at lower right. This example bears diagonal 'SPECIMEN NOTE' overprints in red on both sides. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | No reverse image is available for description; the reverse of Scottish provincial notes of this era typically carried minimal printed content, often left plain or with only a simple border. |
| 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 Clydesdale Banking Company was established in Glasgow in 1838 and operated as a fully independent Scottish bank until its 1950 merger with the North of Scotland Bank. By 1868, Scottish banks still retained the legal right to issue their own notes — a privilege that English banks had largely lost under the 1844 Bank Charter Act, which pointedly did not extend to Scotland. This regulatory asymmetry is precisely why notes like this one continued to be issued at all.
A £100 denomination in 1868 was not a circulation note in any practical sense. It functioned as an interbank instrument, used to settle accounts between institutions rather than pass through ordinary commerce. Surviving examples are exceptionally scarce for exactly that reason — they were issued in small numbers, used quickly, and cancelled or destroyed upon redemption.