5 Pounds Royal Bank of Scotland

Royal Bank of Scotland's £5 issues of this period fall under the last generation of large-format Scottish notes before the move toward standardized dimensions aligned more closely with Bank of England practice. The series ran a very short window — just over a year — before being superseded, which limits surviving circulated examples considerably.

Scottish banks retained the legal right to issue their own notes under the Currency and Bank Notes Act 1954, a situation unique within the UK and one that periodically attracted Westminster scrutiny throughout the 1960s. RBS had to back its issue pound-for-pound with Bank of England notes held in reserve above the first million pounds issued.