The New £50

The introduction of the new £50 was undertaken by the Bank of England Governor, Andrew Bailey, at a special ceremony at Bletchley Park, once the top-secret home of the World War Two codebreakers and where Alan Turing, the subject of the note, carried out his most famous work breaking the Enigma code.

The portrait on the reverse of the £50 is of Turing, and the main design and security features are centred on his life and work.

Those security features, many of which are achievable only with polymer substrate, include words that change from ‘Fifty’ to ‘Pounds’ when the note is tilted, different metallic coloured foils on the front and back of the note, a portrait of the Queen in a transparent window, a 3D image of the crown in a silver foil patch, and a figure ‘50’ that only appears under ultraviolet light.