The Last British Horseblanket ~ Bank of Scotland £20 1969

The late 1960s were a time of much change in the financial sector in Britain. Britain has had a unique system where commercial banks issued notes in Scotland and Northern Ireland due to laws regulating them differing from English law which phased out commercial issues by 1921 in favour of the Bank of England that was only nationalised in 1946. In Scotland and England banknotes were modernised and tried and true older white fiver type notes were phased out in favour of newer notes with more intricate designs largely due to advances in counterfeiting during and after WWII.

While the Bank of England with its' resources was the forefront of technological development, the commercial banks in Scotland in the 1950s were also modernising their banknotes. National Bank, Commercial Bank and British Linen Bank were printing new notes through Thomas De La Rue and Bradbury Wilkinson and had modern clean designs with intricate engraving.

But the two oldest commercial banks in Scotland - Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland were still having their notes printed from designs that were developed over 80 years prior. In 1966 Royal Bank got a scare when some forged £20 notes started crossing counters and both banks realised that their notes were seriously outdated and could be forged very easily. With oversight from the Bank of England they planned newer and more modern issues.

Beginning in 1967 with Royal Bank, they started issuing more modern notes with colour etc. Bank of Scotland began issuing £1 and £5 notes with plates prepared by Joh Enchede in Zonen in the Netherlands but physically printed by Waterlow and Sons' in Edinburgh in 1968. Larger denomination notes were in the works but such a project is costly and time consuming. Bank of Scotland relied on notes printed as late as 1963 in quantity until the new notes could be released.

The banking sector in Britain was also consolidating and banks merged with competitors in an effort to stay relevant. National and Commercial banks merged in 1959 to become National Commercial, which then merged with Royal Bank in 1969. British Linen Bank had been in business since 1745 but began merger talks with Bank of Scotland in early 1969.

Meanwhile over at Bank of Scotland the cash department was running low on stock of £20 notes as they were the largest denomination note in common circulation for that bank. It was becoming apparent that the new notes being prepared by Joh Enschede and Waterlows would not be available - so the directors ordered an "emergency" printing of the older design £20.


Waterlows had run out of the Portals produced watermarked paper that was last used on the October 1963 issue and had to use thistle watermarked paper intended for use on the new £5 notes. In addition a magnetic thread was inserted into the paper during production:



Which has Bank of Scotland in Morse code. These notes saw use until 1971 when Bank of Scotland released the new Sir Walter Scott £20, using the vignette from the recently acquired British Linen Bank. These 1969 £20 "emergency" issue notes were the penultimate issue of a very dated design, with a blank back and a large format that were issued in Britain.