Banknote Status For “The Golden Bear”

August 25, 2006

Last year The Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) issued a £5 banknote in honor of Jack William Nicklaus, aka “The Golden Bear” who played in his 38th final at St. Andrews Open Championship.

RBS presented Jack Nicklaus with a frame displaying three of the commemorative notes, which bear the serial numbers 1966, representing his victory at Muirfield, as well as 1970 and 1978, which represent Jack’s victories at St Andrews. A frame was also presented for the Nicklaus museum with two notes, bearing the serial numbers 1940, the year of Jack Nicklaus’ birth and 2005, which represents the year of his last Open Championship.

Front

A total of two million Nicklaus commemorative £5 notes went into circulation on July last year, the first day of the Open Championship.

RBS also noted that apart from the Queen and the late Queen Mother, Nicklaus will be the only living person ever to have appeared on a Scottish note.

The front of the £5 note is largely the same as the existing one, apart from the fact that the Golden Bear logo is shown and that the serial number only appears once. In addition, all the serial numbers for this commemorative banknote start with “JWN”, short for Jack William Nicklaus.

The reverse of the banknote has been completely redesigned and shows images of Jack holding the claret jug and playing during his 1978 victory at St Andrews. The R&A clubhouse is depicted on the top left hand portion of the note, and in the bottom left, Jack’s winning scores at St Andrews in 1970 (when he won an 18-hole playoff with Doug Sanders) and in 1978. On the bottom right hand side of the note, the tee at the 18th hole can be seen along with the Swilcan Bridge. A scorecard 2005 Open is also shown.