Clydesdale Bank £5 note Clydesdale Bank £5 note The Clydesdale Bank £5 note is a banknote of the pound sterling. It is the smallest denomination of banknote issued by the Clydesdale Bank. The current polymer note, first issued in 2015, bears an image of engineer William Arrol on the obverse and an image of the Forth Bridge on the reverse. It is the first fully polymer banknote to go into circulation in the United Kingdom. The Clydesdale Bank began issuing £5 notes in 1838, the same year as the bank's founding. Early banknotes were monochrome, and printed on one side only. The issuing of
Bank of England £20 note amount that had been redeemed. From 1853 printed notes replaced handwritten notes, with the declaration "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of twenty pounds" replacing the name of the payee. This declaration remains on Bank of England banknotes to this day. A printed signature of one of three cashiers appeared on the printed notes, though this was replaced by the signature of the Chief Cashier from 1870 onward. The right to redeem banknotes for gold ceased in 1931 when Britain stopped using the gold standard. The twenty pound note ceased to be produced by the Bank