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5 Pounds British Linen Bank
| Issuer | British Linen Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1944-1959 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | The note is printed in blue and salmon tones, with the Royal Arms of Scotland as a central vignette at the top, flanked by the word FIVE in large letters within ornate guilloche panels on either side. The bank title and promise-to-pay text are rendered in intaglio script across the centre, with the place of issue Edinburgh and the date printed below the arms. Two oval guilloche medallions appear at the left margin, and serial numbers are printed in duplicate on either side of the date line. |
|---|---|
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
The British Linen Bank, despite its name, had nothing to do with linen by the twentieth century — it had evolved from a 1746 trading company chartered to promote the Scottish linen industry into a fully conventional commercial bank, though it retained the old name until its absorption into the Bank of Scotland in 1969. The P#161 series was printed by Waterlow & Sons, whose Scottish commercial banknote work during this period was competent but unexceptional compared to their more celebrated colonial and South American contracts.
The fifteen-year date range reflects continuous reissue of the same basic design rather than distinct types — minor signature changes mark the transitions between consecutive cashiers, and these are the primary differentiators for date attribution within the series.