THE BANK OF ENGLAND’S NEW £50 BANKNOTE

You could be fooled into thinking cash is dying. Thousands of shops and restaurants have shunned physical currency in the last year, citing Covid safety concerns.

But the numbers tell a different story: the value of banknotes in circulation has risen by 10pc since the pandemic began. One woman who believes cash has a long life ahead of it is Sarah John, the Bank of England’s chief cashier. Ms John’s job encompasses everything from the design and production of notes, to the destruction of used money at the end of its life.

She said the death of cash had been greatly overstated. Many city-dwelling card users had failed to realise how many ordinary people relied on or preferred cash. Payment preferences are changing and that has been accelerated during the pandemic, she said. But even today, after the last year, one in every five people still say their payment preference is cash.

Ms John’s latest challenge has been masterminding the launch of the new £50, which is released on Wednesday. It is the fourth and final of the Bank’s new polymer notes to be launched, and bears mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing on the reverse. This replaces the current £50 paper banknote featuring engineer James Watt and entrepreneur Matthew Boulton.

As with the polymer Winston Churchill £5, the Jane Austen £10 and JMW Turner £20, the new £50 has dozens of security elements designed to deter counterfeiters. Two key security features are a hologram which alternates between the words fifty and pounds as the note is tilted, plus a window on the note which depicts a microchip.

Ms John said her favourite design elements were a 1949 Turing quote – This is only a foretaste of what is to come, and only the shadow of what is going to be – and a sunflower which represents his morphogenetic work, which considered how animal colours and patterns develop in a specific way.

Production of the note has been unhindered by the pandemic. The main issue facing Ms John has been ensuring that infrastructure – including cash machines and note counters – can read the new notes. Acceptance of cash has become a huge issue in the last year, with many businesses starting to insist on card payments only.

It is rare to see a £50 note in real life and some retailers do not accept Britain’s largest denomination note. Its high value means it has become associated with criminals and other rogues, but a Treasury report in 2019 safeguarded its future for the long term.

Ms John believes the £50 note’s reputation could finally change once the new version is released. Given inflation, the real value of these bank notes is falling over time, she said. When the first £50 note was introduced in 1981 it was worth the equivalent to £145 in today’s money, so there has been a big change already. It is starting to become a transactional note.

To read the complete article, see:
'Cash is not dead yet': new £50 will spark banknote revival (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/cash-not-dead-yet-new-50-will-spark-banknote-revival/)

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