Notable tribute to Queen Mother

Viscount Younger gets an eyeful of the new note

The Queen Mother is in the money after a Scottish bank unveiled a notable birthday tribute.

The Royal Bank of Scotland is marking Her Majesty's centenary by issuing two million special £20 notes on Friday.

And the bank has also produced a birthday gift for the Queen Mother herself - a unique £100 note.

It will be presented to Her Majesty by Viscount Younger of Leckie, the Royal Bank's chairman and a brigadier of the Royal Company of Archers - the Queen's bodyguard in Scotland.

Two million notes will be issued

The collector's item £20 note features both contemporary and childhood portraits of the Queen Mother, an illustration of Glamis Castle in Angus and a unique serial number - all notes start QETQM.

It will be the first note issued in Britain to feature a living person other than the monarch.

Notes will be available at all the bank's Scottish branches, but cannot be issued in branches outside Scotland - although customers and collectors can apply by post.

There is a long-standing link between the Queen Mother, formerly Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon and daughter of the Earl of Strathmore, and the Royal Bank's Drummonds branch in London.

The Queen Mother will be gifted a £100 note

The Earls and their families have banking connections going back to the first half of the 18th Century, when Andrew Drummond left Scotland to set up banking services for the aristocrats who moved south following the Act of Union between Scotland and England.

The Queen Mother's 100th birthday has already been marked in Scotland with a special pageant at Edinburgh Castle.

The event attracted a sell-out crowd to hear the massed pipes and drums and military bands of the Scottish regiments perform their tributes to the most senior royal.

Weeks of celebrations across the UK will culminate on Friday when Her Majesty turns 100 and marks the occasion with a special appearance at Buckingham Palace.