New Ulster Bank £50 note goes into circulation

Ulster Bank’s new polymer £50 note is the latest in a series of vertically oriented notes launched by the bank featuring people and places in Northern Ireland.

A big focus of the new note is industry including aerospace, ship building, linen mills, and the film industry.

The design of the new £50 note heavily features women working in NI’s burgeoning life sciences industry as well.

As part of this, it includes Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell’s iconic 1967 discovery of pulsars - spherical, compact objects that are about the size of a large city but contain more mass than the sun.

On the other side of the note, there is a range of flora and fauna found in NI, including a pine martin, a cryptic wood butterfly, and gorse, whose thorny spines make it a corridor and safe haven for wildlife.

The date for withdrawal of the paper £50 notes is yet to be announced and customers can continue to use them until this time.

However, Ulster Bank is encouraging customers to begin exchanging them now for the new polymer notes in the bank’s branches across Northern Ireland.

Terry Robb, Head of Personal Banking in Northern Ireland, said: “We have experienced a huge increase in customers moving to digital transactions, but bank notes continue to be an important part of the way that many people interact with us.

“We’re really proud to introduce this latest bold new design.

“The new polymer notes last two-and-a-half-times longer than traditional cotton notes, making them more sustainable and environmentally friendly.

“Their advanced security features also make it easier for customers to protect themselves from being a victim of fraud.”

Sandra Wright, Senior HR Manager at Ulster Bank, added: “The note designs are a celebration of the people and places of Northern Ireland, building on the designs of our £5, £10 and £20 notes.

“But this new note has a particular focus on women and women’s role in life and industry here, including amazing achievements such as Dame Jocelyn Bell’s discovery of pulsars,” she ended.