Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
20 Pounds Sterling
| Issuer | National Commercial Bank of Scotland Ltd. |
|---|---|
| Year | 1967 |
| Type | Pattern or trial banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Printed in rose-red on a light guilloche underprint, the obverse carries the bank's full title in bold letterpress at the top, flanked by the £20 denomination numerals at each corner. To the left, a large oval vignette contains a portrait in light intaglio impression with zeroed serial number A000000 below; to the lower centre, the bank's heraldic arms are rendered in fine intaglio detail. The promise-to-pay text, Edinburgh date of 1st June 1967, and the manuscript facsimile signature of the General Manager appear in the central field, with a bold SPECIMEN overprint applied diagonally across the face. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in rose-red on white paper and is dominated by a large scenic vignette of the Forth Rail Bridge viewed from the southern bank, with a sailing vessel passing beneath its spans and a tree to the right providing compositional framing. The bank's name appears in a bold letterpress panel along the upper border, with the £20 denomination at the upper right and lower left corners enclosed within ornate guilloche frames. A diagonal SPECIMEN overprint is applied across the central vignette, and the printer's imprint of Thomas De La Rue & Company Limited appears in small type at the foot of the note. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The National Commercial Bank of Scotland was itself a merger product — formed in 1959 when the National Bank of Scotland and the Commercial Bank of Scotland combined, creating one of the larger Scottish clearing banks of the postwar period. This note predates the bank's absorption into the Royal Bank of Scotland by just a few years; that takeover completed in 1969, making the window for NCBoS issues relatively narrow.
De La Rue's involvement was consistent across the series. Scottish £20 notes of this period circulated far less freely than lower denominations — shops routinely refused them — so survivors in any condition tend to show less handling wear than their equivalent English counterparts.