Rare one guinea Scottish banknote is expected to fetch £2k at auction

A 245-year-old one guinea note that was the first tricoloured banknote ever issued in Scotland could fetch up to £2,000 when it goes under the hammer at auction later this month.

The Royal Bank of Scotland one guinea note dates from September 1, 1777. It is also thought to be the first of its kind in Europe.

Signed by two Royal Bank of Scotland directors, Charles Moore and James

Simpson, it promised to pay Archibald Hope one guinea on production of the note.

Known as the “Red Guinea”, the note, an important survivor from the “origins of the modern banking system”, will be auctioned in London on August 24. The recipient is believed to have been the

Scots aristocrat Sir Archibald Hope, 9th Baronet, who established a family seat at Pinkie House in Musselburgh, near Edinburgh, in 1778.