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20 Pounds Sterling
| Issuer | British Linen Company |
|---|---|
| Year | 1872-1904 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Blue-tinted letterpress note with 'THE BRITISH LINEN COMPANY' in large bold capitals across the centre, surmounted by a Royal Charter vignette with crown and heraldic supporters; guilloche rosettes bearing the numeral '20' appear at upper left and upper right, while a circular guilloche medallion with a standing classical female figure occupies the left margin. The denomination 'Twenty Pounds' is rendered in ornate script below the central heading, with the place and date of issue in manuscript at lower left. Signature lines for the accountant and manager appear at lower centre and right, and a handwritten cancellation is present across the face of the note. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | THE BRITISH LINEN COMPANY Twenty Pounds Edinburgh Incorporated by Royal Charter 1746 By order of the Court of Directors Acct. Manager |
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| Comments |
The British Linen Company — formally a linen trading concern chartered in 1746 — had long abandoned textiles by the time this note was in use, operating purely as a bank while retaining its anachronistic name until a 1906 rebranding as the British Linen Bank. The £20 denomination placed this squarely in commercial and wholesale use; retail customers rarely handled sums of this size.
Scottish banks of this period retained the right to issue their own notes under rules that English banks had lost decades earlier — a distinction that made Scottish private issue a genuine operational advantage, not a formality. The British Linen's notes circulated on the strength of institutional reputation rather than any central guarantee.
Surviving examples from this run are genuinely uncommon, as high-denomination commercial notes tended to move through clearing quickly and return to the bank for cancellation rather than accumulating in everyday pockets.