Catalog
5 Pounds British Linen Company
| Issuer | British Linen Company |
|---|---|
| Year | 1780 |
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| Currency | Pound sterling (1707-1970) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | The British Linen Company Promise to pay on demand to or Bearer FIVE POUNDS Sterling value received By Order of the Court of Directors |
| Reverse description | Unprinted verso bearing extensive manuscript endorsements and annotations in ink, consistent with the note having passed through multiple hands during circulation; several partial ink stamps are also visible. The reverse carries handwritten notations including dates, names, and what appear to be declarations or transfer records, characteristic of Scottish banknote practice of the period. |
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| Comments |
The British Linen Company was chartered in 1746 primarily to develop Scotland's linen trade, not as a bank — yet by the 1770s banking had become its dominant business, making it one of the more unusual institutional pivots in Scottish financial history. Its note-issuing activity placed it in direct competition with the Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank at a time when Scottish private banking was extraordinarily active and largely unregulated by English standards.
A 1780 example predates the company's formal reconstitution as the British Linen Bank by well over a century. Survival rates for Scottish provincial paper of this period are low — most notes were redeemed and pulped as a matter of routine housekeeping.