Banknotes of the pound sterling

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Banknotes of the pound sterling

Pound sterling banknotes The UK and Crown dependencies (red) and overseas territories (blue) using the pound or their local issue
ISO 4217
Code	GBP
Denominations
Currency symbol £ Subunit p (penny) (1/100) Banknotes Freq. used £5, £10, £20, £50 Rarely used £1 (not used by the Bank of England, Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland, Clydesdale Bank, or in NI) £100 (not issued by the Bank of England) Higher valued banknotes do exist, such as the £1,000,000 (Giant) and £100,000,000 (Titan), however, usage is restricted[1][citation needed]– such as through backing Scottish and Northern Ireland banknotes[2]
Issuance
Central bank	Bank of England
Note-issuing banks England and Wales Bank of England Scotland Bank of Scotland Royal Bank of Scotland Clydesdale Bank Northern Ireland Northern Bank / Danske Bank Ulster Bank Bank of Ireland Crown dependencies States of Guernsey States of Jersey Isle of Man Government
Printer	De La Rue
Demographics
England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man
British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (Tristan da Cunha only), Gibraltar
v t e

The pound sterling (symbol: £; ISO 4217 currency code: GBP) is the official currency of the United Kingdom, Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and Tristan da Cunha. The Bank of England has a legal monopoly of banknote issuance in England and Wales. Six other banks (three in Scotland and three in Northern Ireland) also issue their own banknotes as provisioned by the Banking Act 2009, but the law requires that the issuing banks hold a sum of Bank of England banknotes (or gold) equivalent to the total value of notes issued.^[3]

Versions of the pound sterling issued by Crown dependencies and other areas are regulated by their local governments and not by the Bank of England. Four British Overseas Territories (Gibraltar, Saint Helena, Ascension Island and the Falkland Islands) also have currencies called pounds which are at par with the pound sterling. Pound sterling paper banknotes were the first to be issued in Europe, printed and circulated by the Bank of Scotland in 1696.^[4]