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20 Shillings Sterling = 12 Pounds Scots
| Issuer | Royal Bank of Scotland |
|---|---|
| Year | 1750 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Pound sterling (1694-date) |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in brown ink on handmade paper, with an oval vignette at the upper left enclosing a bust portrait in profile of a figure wearing a periwig, surrounded by elaborate calligraphic scrollwork and flourishes. The issuer name appears in copperplate script and letterpress across the upper portion, above a promise-to-pay text in cursive script. The lower section carries a manuscript date — Edinburgh, the ninth day of February one thousand seven hundred and fifty years — and a Court of Directors authorization line with two handwritten signatures. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Protection type | Handwritten serial number, Manuscript signatures, Official stamp |
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| Comments |
The Royal Bank of Scotland was founded in 1727, a full decade after the Bank of Scotland, and this mid-eighteenth century note reflects the peculiar monetary duality that persisted in Scotland long after the Acts of Union. The denomination itself tells that story: Scots currency had been fixed at a twelfth of sterling since 1707, making the dual expression a bureaucratic necessity rather than a choice, one that lingered on Scottish paper for generations.
Manuscript signatures and handwritten serials were not a security afterthought — at this date, the RBS was signing and numbering notes individually by hand as a matter of standard issue protocol, each note effectively a personal instrument before it entered circulation.