20 Pounds Clydesdale Bank

Clydesdale Bank is one of three Scottish commercial banks retaining the right to issue their own sterling banknotes — a privilege rooted in the Bank Notes (Scotland) Act 1845, which grandfathered existing issuers rather than creating new ones. Every Scottish pound note in circulation must be backed one-for-one by either Bank of England notes held in reserve or, for amounts above £1 million, by gold deposited at the Bank of England. The system is legally unambiguous but persistently misunderstood by the English public.

With just over 12 million printed across a six-year window, this issue ran at a modest annual volume — consistent with the £20 being a workhorse denomination but Clydesdale holding a smaller market share than the clearing banks south of the border.