New Scottish bank notes revealed - with poet and scientist taking lead roles

The bank has revealed that the Scottish novelist and poet Nan Shepherd will feature on the £5 note when it comes into circulation later this year.

The announcement follows the recent public vote that led to scientist Mary Somerville being chosen to feature on the £10 notes which will enter circulation in 2017.

In designing the new notes, the Royal Bank of Scotland engaged with thousands of people across Scotland through workshops, online communities and polling surveys.

As a result of this work, ‘the Fabric of Nature’ was chosen as the theme to underpin the design elements of the note set.

The new notes will be printed on De La Rue’s Polymer material and will also contain a variety of new security features, making them difficult to counterfeit but easy to authenticate.

The choice of Nan Shepherd to feature on the £5 note was taken by the RBS Scotland Board.

RBS Board chairman Malcolm Buchanan said: “I am delighted that we have been able to involve the public throughout this process; from the workshops and surveys that helped to decide on the theme, right through to the public vote that resulted in Mary Somerville being chosen to feature on the £10 note.

“People in Scotland will be using this money every day and it is quite right that they got to play an important role in designing it. This truly is the people’s money.

“The Royal Bank of Scotland has never before featured a woman on its main issue bank notes. It gives me enormous pleasure that we are able to celebrate the fantastic, and often overlooked, achievements of two great Scottish women. Both made huge contributions in their respective fields.

On the choice of Nan Shepherd to appear on the £5 note, Robert Macfarlane, writer and Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, added: “It is thrilling to see Nan Shepherd celebrated and commemorated in this way.

“Nan was a blazingly brilliant writer, a true original whose novels, poems and non-fiction broke new ground in Scottish literature, and her influence lives on powerfully today.

“Nan’s book The Living Mountain is a slender masterpiece, that has brought many thousands of readers to see the Scottish landscape with fresh, astonished eyes. In person as in language, Nan followed her own path - she was a woman of fierce independence and inspiring vision.

“It is just wonderful news that she will now become known to millions more people in Scotland and beyond.”

Nan Shepherd (1893-1981) was a Scottish novelist and poet who wrote three standalone novels set in small, fictional, communities in North Scotland.

The Scottish landscape and weather played a major role in her novels and were the focus of her poetry.

She also wrote a non-fiction book on hill walking – the Living Mountain, perhaps her most famous work - based on her experiences walking in the Cairngorms.

Shepherd was a lecturer of English at the Aberdeen College of Education for most of her working life.

The reverse of the £5 note features two Mackerel, the single most valuable stock for the Scottish fishing industry, as well as an excerpt from the poem ‘The Choice’ by Sorley MacLean. Behind the portrait sits a picture of the Cairngorms, so beloved by Nan Shepherd and celebrated in her writing, as well as a quote from her book ‘The Living Mountain’.

The £10 note sees two otters at play on the reverse and an excerpt from the poem ‘Moorings’ by Norman MacCraig.

Burntisland Beach, where Mary Somerville lived as a child, features behind the portrait, along with a quote from her work ‘The Connection of the Physical Sciences’.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has been issuing banknotes since 1727 and has an average of £1.5bn worth of notes in circulation on a single day. This is the first set of notes to feature different portraits on different denominations.

The new £5 note will be issued in the second half of 2016, with the £10 note following roughly a year later.

The polymer notes will be 15% smaller and printed on De La Rue’s Safeguard® Polymer material.

Polymer is cleaner, more secure and more durable than cotton paper. As a result of the additional durability, the banknotes will also reduce costs for issuing banks.

The following portraits have featured on previous Royal Bank of Scotland banknotes:

*King George II, during his reign, 1727-1760, and also (alternating with George I) 1830s-1960s.

*King George III, during his reign, 1760-1820

*King George IV, 1826 only

*King George I, alternating with George II, 1830s-1960s

*David Dale, 1966-1969

*Archibald, Earl of Ilay, 1987-date

Commemoratives include:

*Robert Louis Stevenson, 1994

*Alexander Graham Bell, 1997

*Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, 2000

*Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2002 and 2012

*Old Tom Morris, 2004 (on Royal & Ancient Golf Club commemorative)

*Jack Nicklaus, 2005

Scotsman Food & Drink: ideas, inspiration and guides