The Story Behind Scotland’s Secret £1 Souvenir

Did you know about the secret £1 Scottish souvenir?  I see you rolling your eyes – you’d be right to be cynical.  If you’ve ever stepped foot in one of those tawdry souvenir shops that now line Princes Street and the Royal Mile, you already know there are plenty of truly awful things you can get for a pound. (Actually – most of that awful stuff costs more than a pound, but I digress).

Only in Scotland, though, can you get a special and unique souvenir that well and truly costs a pound.  It’s a nice, easy-to-carry-back-home gift that comes with a long story and explanation behind it.

What is it, you ask?  The Scottish One Pound Note:

What’s the Story?

Right, grab a beverage and have a seat.  We need to start at the beginning.  The British Pound Sterling (as opposed to Stirling, which is a city in Scotland) is the world’s oldest trading currency.   As you probably know, the United Kingdom is made up of several nations:  Northern Ireland, Wales, England, and of course, Scotland.  There’s a unified currency amongst all of these nations, as well as other British dependencies, such as the Isle of Man or Gibraltar.

In most countries in the world, governments have a centralised bank which controls the printing of the nation’s money.  Not so in the UK.  Six different sets of notes are produced by England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey, and the  Isle of Man. (The cynic would note here that despite this, most if not all British bank notes are actually printed by a single company, De La Rue, based in England.)

Now this doesn’t mean that just anyone can start printing notes today.  That’s been stopped, thanks to a number of Parliamentary acts.  When the Bank of England was granted exclusive printing rights for the Pound Sterling in Bank Charter Act of 1844, they weren’t exactly able to remove other notes in circulation.  Subsequent acts were passed which limited any future banks from printing money, but those already in existence and functioning as an issuer were allowed to continue, and will be allowed to continue until the companies shut their doors.

In England, the last non-Bank of England issuer closed in 1921, but in Scotland the three banks who had that right continue to hold it:  Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Clydesdale Bank.

So, get to the point – what’s so special about this £1 Note?

Well, let’s start by saying Scottish notes are peculiar to begin with.  Scottish banks aren’t allowed to dispense them from their branches in England.  Many traders in England refuse to take them, or if they do they’ll give them a good look, to the chagrin of an uncomfortable tourist.  Most say that the further south away from the Scottish border you go, the harder it is to use these notes.  My experience agrees.  The problem is the cloud of legalese surrounding whether or not these bills are legal tender.  I’ll save that argument for another day.

When England stopped printing their £1 note in 1988, this made the Scottish one pound note the exclusive one pound note sterling on the British mainland – it is still issued on the Channel Islands.  It’s distinctive green colour reminds you of the American dollar, perhaps explaining its popularity with the American tourists.  It’s quite small so it feels cutesy or almost toyish.    And they’re quite hard to come by (though I reveal the secret below) – so many people who  happen upon one can’t help but smile, as if lady luck has blessed the receiver that day.

Who’s on the Note?

Sure, it’s cute and it’s clever, but what you might want to know about the images that are on the one pound note:

• On the Front:  As you can see from the image above the front has a picture of a man who is Lord Ilay, one of the founders of the Royal Bank of Scotland and the first governor of the bank.  At one point in time, he was known as “the most powerful man in Scotland.”  The watermark image behind is of the beautiful starred ceiling of the RBS branch in Saint Andrews Square.  He’s on all of the RBS notes.
• On the Back:  The back is a beautiful picture of Edinburgh city centre, shot from somewhere near Waverley Bridge or North Bridge, with both the Edinburgh Castle and Edinburgh National Gallery in view.  All of the RBS notes feature Scottish castles.

Where can you get one?

Most people think it’s random luck to get one of these, and some who haven’t lived in Edinburgh long don’t even know they exist!

Here’s the secret: the easiest way to pick up one of these notes is to go into any Royal Bank of Scotland branch and ask for one.  You can swap larger notes or coins.  Trust me – nobody will blink an eye, they’re used to these sort of thing and they typically have a handful in one of the drawers somewhere, or if they’re out they’ll suggest a nearby branch who still has some.  They don’t advertise them and they of course aren’t just lying out in the open for the taking, so just queue up for a teller and ask for however many notes you want.  (Just be reasonable – there aren’t that many of these in circulation so they don’t have hundreds of them to give out.)

They say carrying a Scottish £1 note will make you lucky.  So don’t forget to pick one up on your next visit!

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