20 Shillings Sterling = 12 Pounds Scots

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.