20 Pounds Commercial Bank of Scotland

The Commercial Bank of Scotland was one of the Edinburgh-based joint-stock banks that competed aggressively with the chartered institutions throughout the first half of the nineteenth century. By 1856 it had branch networks stretching across Scotland, and notes of this denomination were working instruments of commercial credit rather than curiosities — £20 was a substantial sum, and these circulated primarily between merchants and factors rather than at retail level.

Perkins, Bacon & Petch brought their steel-engraving and siderography process to Scottish bank contracts, the same technology they had applied to postage stamps and colonial currency. The anti-counterfeiting properties of that intricate intaglio work were the principal reason Edinburgh banks went to London for printing rather than using local firms.