New £50 note featuring Alan Turing to enter circulation in June

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.