20 Pounds Bank of Scotland

G. Waterston & Sons handled Bank of Scotland's printing requirements for most of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries — a long-standing Edinburgh arrangement that kept production entirely domestic at a time when many Scottish banks were outsourcing to London printers. The four sequential cashier signatures spanning 1890 to 1930 reflect the unusually stable management tenure at the bank during this period; each signatory served for years, not months.

The £20 denomination was not a note for everyday commerce. At a time when skilled workers earned well under £100 annually, these circulated almost exclusively in commercial and inter-bank settlements. Survival rates are accordingly low — high-value notes were redeemed promptly rather than kept as keepsakes.