The Royal Bank of Scotland £1 note those holding genuine Bank of England notes. In 1727, the Royal Bank of Scotland began issuing twenty-shilling notes (equivalent to £1). Early banknotes were monochrome, and printed on one side only. The first twenty-shilling notes were dated 8 December 1727 and were hand-signed by a bank cashier and given a unique number. The cashier also added by hand the equivalent value in old Scots pounds — a currency that had been abolished 20 years earlier in the Acts of Union 1707 which united the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain. Twenty shillings was equivalent to
Acts of Union 1800 kingdom: the Kingdom of Great Britain. Upon that union, each House of the Parliament of Ireland passed a congratulatory address to Queen Anne, praying that, "May God put it in your royal heart to add greater strength and lustre to your crown, by a still more comprehensive Union". The Irish parliament at that time was subject to a number of restrictions that placed it subservient to the Parliament of England (and following the union of England and Scotland, the Parliament of Great Britain), however Ireland gained effective legislative independence from Great Britain through the Constitution of 1782. By this time