Burning Banknotes

Royal Bank of Scotland

1991

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Burning Banknotes

Royal Bank of Scotland

For many years, the Royal Bank of Scotland has removed old bank notes from circulation and burnt them in a furnace, latterly in a top floor room at St Andrew Square, once a week.

This practice stopped in the early 1990s as the smoke from the burning did not comply with Edinburgh's clean air legislation.  On the occasion that the photograph above was taken, £1 million of old notes was being burnt.

I was invited back to the bank some months later to witness the 'Final Burning'.  A number of invited guests were present for the occasion. They were given 'Final Burning' tee-shirts, each bearing a large picture of burning notes made from the photograph above.

Here is what the bank notes above looked like, about half an hour earlier:

©

Royal Bank of Scotland

Edinburgh at Work