20 Pounds - Elizabeth II William Shakespeare

Harry Eccleston spent nearly three decades as the Bank of England's principal designer, and this note — his first major commission for the £20 denomination — introduced Shakespeare as a series figure, a deliberate cultural statement at a time when the Bank was reworking its entire portrait-reverses program. Eccleston both designed and engraved the plate himself, an increasingly rare combination by the 1970s.

The note ran through five different signature combinations, making Fforde the earliest and Gill the latest. Somerset issues are distinguished by having the watermark incorporate both Elizabeth II and Shakespeare — a dual-portrait watermark unusual for British domestic currency of the period.