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5 Pounds Sterling
| Issuer | Commercial Bank of Scotland |
|---|---|
| Year | 1860 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in blue intaglio on white paper, with an elaborate guilloche border framing the entire note. At the top, a classical allegorical vignette engraved by Perkins, Bacon & Co. shows a group of figures in a pastoral scene, flanked by oval medallions bearing the word FIVE. The central text panel carries the bank's name and promise-to-pay legend in letterpress, with a bold red-orange underprint of the numeral 5 across the body, and the payment location given as Edinburgh. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | UNDER ACT 16 & 17 VICT. CAP. 63. FIVE THE COMMERCIAL BANK OF SCOTLAND INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER Promise to pay to the Bearer on demand FIVE POUNDS Sterling at the Office here EDINBURGH By order of the Court of Directors Accountant. Manager. SPECIMEN |
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| Comments |
Perkins, Bacon & Co. were the dominant force in British security printing through the mid-nineteenth century, and their steel-engraved work for Scottish private banks was among the most technically refined currency printing of the period. The Commercial Bank of Scotland, founded in Edinburgh in 1810 as a deliberate challenge to the established Royal Bank and Bank of Scotland duopoly, remained a significant issuer well into the era of consolidation — it would eventually merge with the National Bank of Scotland in 1959.
Scottish private note issue was legally protected under arrangements that predated the Bank Charter Act of 1844, which did not extend its monopoly restrictions to Scotland. That legal carve-out is precisely why notes like this exist at all.