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Fun fact: Bank of England bank notes, denominated in £ sterling, still have printed on them:

"I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of <value> pounds"

Signed by the Chief Cashier of the BoE

The UK is like that, banks have their own notes, still.

The BoE ones are the "real" government-issued ones. The interesting ones are the genuinely private ones by the Scottish and Northern Irish banks. Including my favourite ever, the Northern Bank portrait-format space shuttle: http://www.polymernotes.com/northireland.html

The current legal basis is the Banknotes (Scotland) Act 1845: https://www.scotbanks.org.uk/history/banknote-history.html

Of course, in 2004 Northern Bank was acquired by Denmark-based Danske Group. So now, you have Northern Irish banknotes, which are UK pounds (GBP), with Dankse Bank written on them!

https://danskebank.co.uk/about-us/bank-notes/ten-pound-note

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