A NEW set of banknotes promoting some of Scotland's best-known figures and places will be released to coincide with the Homecoming celebrations, it was announced yesterday.
A new £10 note featuring Robert Burns will be produced by the Clydesdale Bank during the year-long programme of celebrations marking his 250th "birthday".
Robert the Bruce, Sir Alexander Fleming, the inventor of penicillin, architect Charles Renni
e Mackintosh and celebrated suffragette Elsie Inglis are the other figures to feature on the notes – the first new set to be produced by the bank for more than 20 years.
The reverse of the new £5, £10, £20, £50 and £100 notes will also feature Scotland's five world heritage sites – St Kilda, the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh, New Lanark, the Antonine Wall and Neolithic Orkney.
Alex Salmond, the First Minister, said the launch of the new notes was an indication of the bank's strength and commitment to Scotland in the current economic climate.
The move by the Clydesdale Bank comes less than a year after a deal was brokered between Scotland's banks, the Treasury and the Bank of England to secure the future of Scotland's distinctive notes.
Although the new notes have been released to coincide with Homecoming – which has various themes include great minds and innovation, and culture and heritage – they will not be ready to be put into circulation until the late autumn.
Mr Salmond said: "The Clydesdale Bank's commemorative notes are a wonderful contribution to the Homecoming celebrations. The new designs showcase our unrivalled landmarks and landscapes as well as the contributions of some of Scotland's greatest minds."
The Bank of Scotland became the first to issue notes north of the Border when it was founded in July 1695. The growth of trade was severely hampered by the shortage of Scots coinage and merchants seeking a more convenient way of settling accounts were among the strongest supporters of an alternative.
The Clydesdale is currently the biggest issuer of banknotes in Scotland with a history of printing notes dating back to 1838. Around £1.1 billion worth of the bank's notes are now in circulation in any given week.
David Thorburn, the bank's chief operating officer, said: "The new banknote family showcases the best of Scotland – its people and its heritage."
The Antonine Wall, which runs from Bo'ness, in West Lothian, to Old Kilpatrick, in West Dunbartonshire, became Scotland's fifth world heritage site in July of last year. The 2,000-year-old wall, widely seen as Scotland's answer to Hadrian's Wall, was once the north-west frontier of the entire Roman empire.
Joanne Orr, chairwoman of the Scotland committee of the UK National Commission for Unesco, said: "This is a unique and exciting means of raising the profile of Scotland's five outstanding world heritage
sites."
BACKGROUND
Alex Salmond insists there is mounting evidence that the "Homecoming" celebrations are on track to be a huge success. The First Minister cited reported ticket sales for major events as proof that the programme was capturing the imagination of the public at home and abroad.
Yesterday, The Scotsman revealed that the Gathering, in Edinburgh, which has sold 6,000 out of 8,000 tickets, is set for a sell-out, while record sales are expected at Celtic Connections, which starts with a torchlight procession through Glasgow tonight.
The Scottish Government has added an extra £500,000 for marketing to the £5 million Homecoming budget, in the wake of criticism that not enough effort was going into promoting it overseas.
Mr Salmond said: "Everything is in place for a successful Homecoming."
The full article contains 605 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
