The note is being produced by De La Rue, on its Safeguard polymer substrate. This is already in use for Clydesdale’s existing £5 polymer note, which was issued in September 2016.
Like the bank’s existing £10 paper note, the new £10 will depict Scottish poet Robert Burns. It also includes imagery of the old and new towns of Edinburgh, which are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The note features a number of security features, including a transparent window with an image of Scotland produced using De La Rue’s Spark Orbital optically variable ink technique, which uses Spark colour-shifting ink made by specialist manufacturer SICPA.
David Duffy, chief executive of CYBG, owner of Clydesdale Bank, said: “I am proud to announce that our second polymer banknote will be available in our branches on the 21 September 2017. The introduction of our £5 polymer banknote has led to a reduction in counterfeit levels and had a positive impact on the environment, and we believe the £10 version will have a same effect.”
Clydesdale Bank has been issuing banknotes since 1838, and the announcement about the new note was made on the 221st anniversary of the death of Burns. “We continue to celebrate his life and work by featuring him on our £10 currency,” Duffy added.
Three Scottish banks are authorised to issue banknotes: Clydesdale, Bank of Scotland, and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
After vegans raised objections to the minute amounts of tallow in existing UK banknote polymers, De La Rue confirmed it was reformulating its Safeguard substrate in May, with the tallow-free version set to be available around now.
However, the Clydesdale £10 has not been produced on the new version and will still contain tiny traces of tallow, because of the need to produce large volumes of banknotes ahead of the issue date.
The Bank of England's polymer £10 is also set to go into circulation in September.
