New Royal Bank of Scotland plastic £10 note launched into circulation… and space!

PERTHSHIRE primary school pupils have helped to quite literally launch the new Royal Bank of Scotland £10 polymer banknote.

One of the new notes was sent to the edge of space by children from St Stephen’s and Newhill Primary schools in Blairgowrie, along with a team of scientists.

The note, which features Scots astronomer Mary Somerville, was taken 38,500 metres into the earth’s atmosphere on a weather balloon.

The £10 is 15% smaller than the older paper equivalent and contains new security features which make it difficult to counterfeit but easy to authenticate.

Like its Bank of England counterpart, the note also features raised braille details to help the visually impaired.

RBS are the second Scottish bank to release a plastic tenner after Clydesdale Bank launched theirs at the end of September.

Bank of Scotland are set to follow later this autumn.

Mary Somerville (1780 – 1872) was chosen as the face of the new RBS £10 after a public vote on social media.

Behind her portrait is an illustration of her hometown of Burntisland, Fife. A moon diagram from her book, Mechanism of the Heavens also appears when the note is viewed under UV light.

Clydesdale Bank releases first Scottish polymer £10 note into circulation

The note was sent into the atmosphere from the schools’ shared campus with help from scientists from Sent into Space.

They attached a camera to a weather balloon and were able to photograph and film the note’s ascent before it landed in the north of Scotland.

Malcolm Buchanan, chairman of the bank’s Scotland Board, said: “At the Royal Bank of Scotland, we feel that a banknote’s value is more than just the figure printed across its front – it is our symbol which lives in people’s pockets and touches everyday lives.

“This is our most advanced note yet and we wanted the public to help influence its design. It is fitting that the public vote led to the choice of Mary Somerville, a person who helped advance our understanding of the world which surrounds us and the stars above us.”

The new £10 note will be cleaner, more secure and more durable than traditional cotton notes, on average lasting 2.5 times longer, the bank says.

Its development involved 27 designers and artists from Graven Images, Nile, Stucco, Timorous Beasties, O’Street and the Glasgow School of Art.

Earlier this year, RBS announced that the new polymer £20 note, due to be released in 2020, will feature the face of Catherine Cranston.

A supporter of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, she was a leading figure in the development of Glasgow’s ‘tea rooms’.