A new £50 note featuring Alan Turing, the scientist best known for his codebreaking work during the second world war, has been unveiled by the Bank of England and will go into circulation on 23 June, the date of his birth.
The Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, was due to reveal the design, which incorporates several features relating to Turing, on Thursday morning.
The note features a photo of Turing taken in 1951, three years before his death, plus his signature, ticker-tape depicting his birth date in binary code, and a quote from an interview that he gave: “This is only a foretaste of what is to come, and only the shadow of what is going to be.”
The arrival of this latest polymer note means the Bank has completed its switch away from paper money.
It will join the Churchill £5, the Austen £10 and the Turner £20, all produced in polymer, which is said to last longer and stay in better condition than paper.
Turing was probably best known for helping to crack the Enigma code during the second world war and for pioneering the modern computer, so it is perhaps fitting that the Bank of England was keen to highlight the note’s advanced security features, aimed at discouraging forgery and counterfeiting.
The Bank said its polymer notes were the “most secure series of banknotes yet”. Like the £20, the £50 incorporates two windows and a two-colour foil, making it “very difficult” to counterfeit. There is also a hologram image that changes between the words “Fifty” and “Pounds” when the note is tilted from side to side.
Commenting on the design, Bailey said: “There’s something of the character of a nation in its money, and we are right to consider and celebrate the people on our banknotes. So I’m delighted that our new £50 features one of Britain’s most important scientists, Alan Turing.”
He added that in addition the work he did at Bletchley Park, Turing – who was born in 1912 – was a leading mathematician, developmental biologist and pioneer in the field of computer science.
“He was also gay and was treated appallingly as a result. By placing him on our new polymer £50 banknote, we are celebrating his achievements and the values he symbolises,” Bailey said.
Turing was prosecuted for homosexual acts in 1952, and an inquest concluded that Turing’s death from cyanide poisoning two years later was suicide.
It was announced in July 2019 that Turing had been chosen to appear on the new £50 note after a public consultation process designed to honour an eminent British scientist.
The Bank received a total of 227,299 nominations covering 989 eligible characters, which were whittled down to a shortlist of 12, with the then Bank governor, Mark Carney, making the final decision.
At Thursday’s launch, Bailey was due to be joined by the actor and writer Stephen Fry and scientist Dr Simon Singh.
The public will begin to see the new £50 in June as the notes enter general circulation. However, even before the pandemic, many people only rarely encountered a £50 note, and the coronavirus crisis has triggered a slump in the use of cash, with some consumers reluctant to handle notes.
This month Enryo, a firm of financial consultants, reported that the number of cash transactions in the UK had fallen by 53% in a year, from 7.2bn in 2019 to 3.4bn in 2020.
Consumers can continue to use paper £50 notes as usual, and the Bank said at least six months’ notice would be given of the date when they would be withdrawn.
