Is your £50 note about to expire?
If you’re lucky enough to have a stash of £50 notes tucked away in your mattress, you may want to dig them out and check if they’ll still be worth anything in a few months.
The Bank of England has announced that the old-style £50 notes which have been around for nearly 20 years will be soon be removed from circulation, and can only be used up until 30th April this year.
The note in question features Sir John Houblon who was the Bank of England’s very first governor. It was first issued in April 1994 and it’s estimated there are still 63 million of them in circulation.
The decision comes following a review of the note’s ability to withstand fraud. From May onwards, only the £50 banknote featuring entrepreneur Matthew Boulton and engineer James Watt will hold legal tender status and any institution is within their rights to refuse the old-style notes.
The Boulton and Watt note was the first to include a green ‘motion thread’ which has five windows featuring the pound symbol and the number 50 which moves when the note is tilted from side to side. The two men appear on the new note partly because of the integral role they had in manufacturing coins which were more difficult to counterfeit.
Exchange before 30th April
In a video placed on YouTube, Victoria Cleland, head of notes division at the Bank, advises: “If you have any Houblon £50 notes, it’s best to spend, deposit or exchange them before 30 April.”
However, there’s no need to panic just yet; Barclays, Natwest, RBS, Ulster Bank and the Post Office have agreed to exchange any older-style £50 notes for customers and non-customers up to the value of £200 until 30th October.
FAQs
More details about the withdrawal have been included on a poster issued by the Bank of England should you have any queries or concerns.
A new Edith Cavell £2 coin?
In the wake of the furore surrounding the brand new First World War commemorative £2 featuring Lord Kitchener, a few ideas have been mooted as to who else should be included in the five-year commemorative coin series from outbreak through to armistice.
The new Kitchener £2 has been criticised for being too jingoistic
Kitchener’s famous finger pointing at the reader and his call ‘Your Country Needs You’ has been branded by critics as jingoistic and a glorification of war rather than a reflection on the sheer loss of life which occurred.
The Royal Mint has confirmed that future designs would include other figures connected with the war, but have remained tight-lipped on who these figures will be.
35,000 Signatures
Edith Cavell is amongst the most popular suggestions, and a petition with over 35,000 in signatures has added considerable weight to the case.
An artist’s impression of what an Edith Cavell £2 coin might look like
Born as the daughter of a vicar in 1865, Edith Cavell was the wartime nurse who was executed for providing care to wounded soldiers irrespective of their nationality. She, along with Belgian and French colleagues helped over 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium. She was arrested by a German military court, found guilty of ‘assisting men to the enemy’ and despite worldwide condemnation, was shot by a German firing squad on 12 October 1915.
Patriotism is not enough…
Her last words were “I realise that patriotism is not enough, I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.”
Thousands of people lined the streets for her funeral procession before she was buried at Norwich Cathedral.
Sioned-Mair Richards, the Sheffield Labour Councillor who started the petition believes Cavell was ‘simply a nurse trying to do her duty, and should be honoured by her country as a woman who was one of the best’.
Which design would you prefer to appear on this year’s £2 coin? Our poll is now closed – see the results below.
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Your Country Needs You – The secret behind the poster
New research has revealed Lord Kitchener was never used for the WWI recruitment campaign
Lord Kitchener has been revealed as the subject of the first design in a five year commemorative series which marks the centenary of the First World War. For nearly one hundred years his distinctive image with a finger pointing firmly at the reader has been credited as part of the patriotic call for enlistment following the declaration of war in 1914.
However in his new book Your Country Needs You, James Taylor has traced the image back to its true origins and discovered that it was never actually used as part of a recruitment campaign.
Mr Taylor, a former Victorian paintings specialist, studied records showing nearly 200 official recruitment posters used during the First World War, and Kitchener’s iconic image was a notable absentee.
Graphic artist Alfred Leete created the image using a portrait of Kitchener and adapted it to give him the distinctive pointing finger. It featured on the front cover of London Opinion magazine in 1914, but was never used for official recruitment purposes. The original artwork was then acquired by the Imperial War Museum in 1917 and was mistakenly catalogued as part of the poster collection, which contributed to confusion over its use.
The famous slogan Your Country Needs You was in fact adapted from the official call to arms which was Your King and Country Needs You.
As Mr Taylor comments; “There has been a mass, collective misrecollection. The image’s influence is now totally out of all kilter with the reality of its initial impact. It has taken on a new kind of life. So many historians and books have used it and kept repeating how influential it was, that people have come to accept it”
In truth, whether or not this iconic image was widely used for military recruitment is not as important as the resonance which it still has with the general public. This year we will see Lord Kitchener on one of the most striking £2 coins designs in recent times, and you can be sure you won’t want to spent it when you find one!
Coins with such historical significance are usually hoarded by eagle-eyed collectors, and now you can collect this £2 straight from your change with the FREE Change Checker 2014 Collecting Pack.
Click here to claim your FREE pack.