20 Pounds Sterling 2020, Kingdom of Great Britain
| no number in katalog | - |
| Years of issue: | 05.03.2020 |
| Edition: | |
| Signatures: | Group chief executive: Mr. Ross McEwan |
| Serie: | Scotland |
| Specimen of: | 27.05.2019 |
| Material: | Polymer |
| Size (mm): | 139 x 73 |
| Printer: | De la Rue currency,Loughton |
* All pictures marked 
are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.
** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.
Description
Watermark:
New emblem of the Bank, an inscription (vertically) - TWENTY20 and transparent denomination in numeral - 20.
The new emblem of RBS.
The RBS Group uses branding developed for the Bank on its merger with the National Commercial Bank of Scotland in 1969. The Group's logo takes the form of an abstract symbol of four inward-pointing arrows known as the "Daisy Wheel" and is based on an arrangement of 36 piles of coins in a 6 by 6 square,representing "the accumulation and concentration of wealth by the Group".
Avers:
Catherine Cranston (27 May 1849 – 18 April 1934), widely known as Kate Cranston or Miss Cranston, was a leading figure in the development of tea rooms. She is nowadays chiefly remembered as a major patron of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret MacDonald, in Glasgow, Scotland. The name of Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms lives on in reminiscences of Glasgow in its heyday.
Tearooms were invented in Glasgow, one of the richest cities in Europe in the XIX century. Stuart Cranston, a tea merchant, opened his teahouses in 1875, but they gained real popularity in 1886 when his sister, Kate, opened her own teahouse. The main difference was that Kate's facilities were designed for both sexes. They were distinguished by "advanced views on comfort and taste", but it was Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s choice as the architect and decorator of the new tea room, in 1896, that was a turning point in the history of these establishments.
Kate Cranston, from Glasgow, made her mark for her series of tearooms across the city. Her flagship venue "Willow tea rooms" at 217 Sauchiehall Street, is celebrated by architects and designers due to the interior designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Throughout their lives, these cafes have had a cultural impact on society. After the death of Cranston, in 1934, her fortune was transferred to support the poor and homeless in the city of Glasgow.
Centered, on background is the Facade of Willow tea rooms on Sauchiehall 217, in Glasgow.
The Willow Tearooms are tearooms at 217 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, Scotland, designed by internationally renowned architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, which opened for business in October 1903. They quickly gained enormous popularity, and are the most famous of the many Glasgow tearooms that opened in the late XIX and early XX century. The building was fully restored largely to Mackintosh's original designs between 2014 and 2018. It was re-opened as working tea rooms in July 2018 and trades under the name "Mackintosh at The Willow". This follows a trademark dispute with the former operator of The Willow Tearooms which was resolved in 2017. This name is now used at tea room premises in Buchanan Street and a department store in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow.
The Tea Rooms at 217 Sauchiehall Street first opened in 1903 and are the only surviving Tea Rooms designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh for local entrepreneur and patron Miss Catherine Cranston. Over the years and through various changes of ownership and use, the building had deteriorated until it was purchased in 2014 by The Willow Tea Rooms Trust in order to prevent the forced sale of the building, closure of the Tea Rooms and loss of its contents to collectors.
Mackintosh's redesigned external facade was a carefully considered asymmetric, abstractly modelled composition with shallow curves on some areas of the surface, and varying depths of recesses to windows and the main entrance. The composition respected the urban context of the neighbouring buildings, matching the major cornice lines and heights of adjoining buildings, whilst still exploring emerging ideas of Art Nouveau and the modern movement.
The ground floor entrance door is placed far to the left of a wide band of fenestration, both of which are recessed below the first-floor level, the location of the Room de Luxe. To emphasise the importance of this room, Mackintosh designed a full width bay window, projecting the facade outwards with a gentle curve. The two storeys above this featured a more regular pattern of fenestration with three individual windows per floor, recessed to different degrees. The asymmetry of the composition was continued by widening the left side windows and creating another gentle curve in this part of the facade, extending through both storeys. This repeated the curved form of the first floor and emphasised the heavily recessed entrance to the building below.
Mackintosh chose to finish the facade in a white-painted smooth render, in contrast to the natural stone finish of nearby buildings. This decision, plus the use of small paned windows and ornamental tile inserts forming a chequered border around the perimeter of the facade, gave it an elegance and lightness of touch appropriate for its purpose. The domestic-style leaded glass announced the intimacy of the interior and hinted at the luxurious willow theme to be found inside.
The location selected by Miss Cranston for the new tearooms was a four-storey former warehouse building on a narrow infill urban site on the south side of Sauchiehall Street. The street and surrounding area are part of the New Town of Blythswood created largely by William Harley of Blythswood Square in the early 1800s. The name "Sauchiehall" is derived from "saugh", the Scots word for a willow tree, and "haugh", meadow. This provided the starting point for Mackintosh and MacDonald's ideas for the design theme.
Within the existing structure, Mackintosh designed a range of spaces with different functions and decor for the Glasgow patrons to enjoy. There was a ladies’ tearoom to the front of the ground floor, with a general lunch room to the back and a tea gallery above it. The first floor contained the "Room de Luxe", a more exclusive ladies' room overlooking Sauchiehall Street. The second floor contained a timber-panelled billiards room and smoking rooms for the men. The design concept foresaw a place for the ladies to meet their friends, and for the men to use on their breaks from office work - an oasis in the city centre.
The decoration of the different rooms was themed: light for feminine, dark for masculine. The ladies' tea room at the front was white, silver, and rose; the general lunch room at the back was panelled in oak and grey canvas, and the top-lit tea gallery above was pink, white, and grey. In addition to designing the internal architectural alterations and a new external facade, in collaboration with his wife Margaret, Mackintosh designed almost every other aspect of the tearooms, including the interior design, furniture, cutlery, menus, and even the waitress uniforms. Willow was the basis for the name of the tearooms, but it also formed an integral part of the decorative motifs employed in the interior design, and much of the timberwork used in the building fabric and furniture. 
Centered the note features a Quotation:
"She has created a demand for just a right things, in just the right way, at just the right price."
With this phrase, the most famous pub of Stockbridge, a suburb of Edinburgh, "The Bailie" marked miss Cranston's prominence at the exhibition with the accolade of its "Men you know" profile slot, accurately identifying her gifts, including her shrewd understanding of her market.
The phrase on the banknote is given with a slight change. The original version was this:
"She has created a demand BY THE SUPPLY OF just a right things, in just the right way, at just the right price."
Commenting at the launch, Celia Sinclair, Chair of the Willow Tea Room Trust, said: “We are delighted that the image of Kate Cranston is on the Royal Bank of Scotland £20 note. She was a very interesting and intelligent woman, an excellent businesswoman who changed attitudes. The Salon de Luxe, the centrepiece of Mackintosh at the Willow, was a symbol of social change in Glasgow where women began to socialise outside the home.
"She was serious about training – she ran all of her own courses and all her staff had to toe the line. She grew her own flowers for the tearooms, fresh foods were supplied by her own dairy. I think there were many women like Kate Cranston around at that time, but history simply doesn’t remember them, but now I am glad to say we are with this very fitting tribute."
On banknote are used the Colour palettes, developed by Donna Wilson.
On reverse and obverse background is Tweed pattern "Entwilling twills" by tweed designers Elspeth Anderson and Alistair McDade..
Obverse of 20 Pounds banknote in UV:
In lower left corner are the The Midges (Simuliidae) and denomination 20.
Centered, at the bottom is a red squirrel (about red squirrels, please, read reverse description).
Centered, on the top are suite of electroplate cutlery, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh circa 1905 for Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms.
Right and left, on obverse and reverse is European blueberry (Vaccínium myrtíllus).
accinium myrtillus has been used for nearly 1,000 years in traditional European medicine. Vaccinium myrtillus fruits have been used in traditional Austrian medicine internally (directly or as tea or liqueur) for treatment of disorders of the gastrointestinal tract and diabetes. Herbal supplements of V. myrtillus (bilberry) on the market are used for cardiovascular conditions, diabetes, as vision aids, and to treat diarrhea and other conditions. Researchers are interested in bilberry because of its high concentrations of anthocyanins, which may have various health benefits.
Blueberry used by early Scots to dye tweed in purple/violet color.
Denominations in numerals are in top corners, in words on top, centered.
Revers:
The £20 topic - the forests of Scotland and the squirrels that inhabit them.
The reverse of the £20 note features an excerpt from Sonet "Venus and Cupid" by Scottish poet Mark Alexander Boyd, 1590.
"Fra bank to bank, fra wood to wood I rin, Ourhailit with my feeble fantasie" (visible on banknote) and "Like til a leaf that fallis from a tree, Or til a reed ourblawin with the win..." (visible in UV light). Calligraphy by Susi Leiper.
in English:
"From bank to bank, from wood to wood I run, Overwhelmed with my feeble fantasy" (visible on banknote) and "Like a leaf that falls from a tree, Or a reed overblown with the wind..." (visible in UV light).
The poetry was chosen to connect the type of landscape and animals represented on each design.
On banknote are Scottish Secretary Hand and Scotch Modern typefaces.
Scottish Secretary Hand is a style of writing employed in Scottish offices during the XVI and XVII Centuries, replacing the previously dominant "book hand" as a more
legible, faster written style better suited to the growth of national and international communication in business and law.
Scotch Modern typefaces emerge as a distinctive typographic form from Scottish type-foundries of the late XVIII / early XIX Century. In style they are rational, logical and practical whilst also expressing great personality and character. Scotch modern types found success in the UK but with their introduction to America, at a time of dramatic growth in mass literacy, they became highly influential at an international level.
Each note in this polymer series also will feature a midge, to "represent the reality of everyday living in the Scottish countryside”, according to RBS. “It’s a reminder that Scottish nature nips us as well as thrills people".
At 20 Pounds banknote are the couple of squirrels. The choice of squirrel is not accidental - it is an permanent resident of Scottish forests.
The red squirrel or Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) is a species of tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus common throughout Eurasia. The red squirrel is an arboreal, omnivorous rodent.
In Great Britain, Ireland, and in Italy numbers have decreased drastically in recent years. This decline is associated with the introduction by humans of the eastern grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) from North America. However, the population in Scotland is stabilising due to conservation efforts, awareness and the increasing population of the pine marten, a European predator that selectively controls grey squirrels.
Denomination 20 hidden on female squirrel nose.
On obverse and reverse of banknote are the Midges.
The Scottish midge, an ever present element of summer in the Scottish countryside. Shown in all the notes as a cluster on the obverse and individually hidden on the reverse.
Denominations in numerals are in lower left and top right corners, in words - on top.
Comments:
RBS board chair Malcolm Buchanan said the bank had “never before featured a woman on its main issue bank notes” and that the new issues celebrated “the fantastic, and often overlooked, achievements of two great Scottish women”. (RBS)
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