100 Pounds Sterling

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.