Scottish Banknotes. Although the pound sterling is the official currency of Scotland, three of the Scottish retail banks - - Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland and Clydesdale Bank â - issue their own banknotes. Bank of England notes are also frequently used. This means that a visitor to Scotland is faced with what initially at least may seem like a bewildering variety of notes: four in each of the common denominations of 5, 10, 20 and 50 pounds.