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20 Pounds
| Issuer | Union Bank of Scotland Ltd. |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923-1947 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Printed in red-brown and blue on a cream ground, the obverse is framed by an ornate guilloche border enclosing the full design. At upper centre, a heraldic vignette presents two allegorical female figures flanking a coat of arms beneath the legend INCORPORATED BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT, with decorative numeral 20 cartouches at the upper left and right corners. The bank title THE UNION BANK OF SCOTLAND LIMITED is set in bold letterpress across the centre, below which the promise-to-pay text, the denomination TWENTY POUNDS, the date, serial number, and manuscript signatures of the General Manager and Cashier appear in sequence. |
|---|---|
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| Protection description | Watermark incorporated into the paper, consistent with Waterlow & Sons security printing practice for Scottish chartered banks of the period. |
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| Comments |
The Union Bank of Scotland was absorbed into the Bank of Scotland in 1955, but this series predates that merger by decades — issued across a long span that covers the interwar depression, the Second World War, and the postwar austerity period. Waterlow & Sons handled the printing throughout, a London firm that also supplied notes to dozens of colonial and foreign issuers during the same years.
Scottish commercial bank notes of this period circulated as legal currency under a framework that required backing by Bank of England notes or gold, a requirement tightened by the 1845 Bank Notes (Scotland) Act and still operative across this entire issue span.