20 Pounds Ulster Bank

Ulster Bank's £20 note from this period was issued under a regime unique to Northern Ireland and the Republic: a handful of commercial banks retained the right to issue their own sterling-denominated notes, a privilege stripped from most UK banks in the nineteenth century but preserved in Ireland through the Bank Charter Act exceptions. Ulster Bank, ultimately a subsidiary of National Westminster by the early 1970s, continued issuing its own paper regardless — a practical necessity in a market where public trust in familiar local notes ran deep.

Bradbury Wilkinson produced security printing of consistently high technical quality throughout this era. The New Malden works closed when the firm was absorbed into De La Rue in 1990.