This banknote is significant for the Powerhouse Museum as it features a drawing of the Museum's Boulton & Watt engine, along with portraits of entrepreneur Matthew Boulton and engineer James Watt and a drawing of Boulton's Birmingham factory. To emphasise that significance, the note bears serial number AA01 001888, which celebrates the fact that the engine was sent to Sydney in 1888 at the end of its working life in Whitbread's London brewery.

In addition to their function of celebrating selected historical people and events, new banknotes are released to help defend the currency from counterfeiters. The new artwork is one deterrent, and the incorporation of newly developed security features provides extra lines of defence.

Matthew Boulton designed and made coining presses, set up a steam-driven mint in Birmingham and led raids on counterfeiters' dens. He lobbied the government to strengthen the currency by minting more low value coins and milling the edges of coins to prevent fraudsters from shaving metal off them. He eventually gained contracts to make British coins and to supply coining presses and steam engines to the British and other national mints.

James Watt, the great improver of the steam engine, also designed and made document-copying machines whose basic technology was still used into the twentieth century. As part of this project, he used his chemical knowledge and skills to develop a new ink that could be transferred reliably from the original page to the copy.

This banknote is made using special paper and inks, and is one of over 200 million that the Bank of England plans to issue. It incorporates a range of security features, from the traditional watermark and highly detailed artwork to a high tech motion thread and well-defined patches of fluorescent ink that appear red or green under ultraviolet light.

Both Boulton and Watt were interested in scientific as well as industrial ideas. They closely followed their friend Joseph Priestley's experiments in chemistry and optics, discussing them at meetings of the Lunar Society of Birmingham. It is fitting therefore that the Boulton and Watt fifty pound note is the first British banknote to contain a motion thread, whose tiny lenses make the pound symbol and the number 50 appear to move and morph as the note is tilted side-to-side or up-and-down. This banknote is certainly packed with scientific, industrial and historical ideas.

Debbie Rudder, Curator, 2011

References
Bank of England website and educational materials
Kevin Wills, 'The Bank of England's anti-counterfeiting strategy', Billetaria, no 8, October 2010, pp 16-17

A team of experts from the Bank of England and the De La Rue company worked together to design the artwork and technical features of the banknote. The decision to feature Boulton and Watt on the note was announced on 29 May 2009, and draft artwork was released at that time. The Bank of England issued the new note on 2 November 2011, and this was one of the first batch produced. De La Rue printed it at Debden, a town in the Epping Forest district of Essex, near London, England.

The manufacturer inspects every banknote it prints. The Bank regularly checks samples of new banknotes before they are issued, to further ensure the integrity of the currency. The Bank also produces educational materials to inform retail and other cash-handling staff about how they can check banknotes as they receive them. All banknote-handling machines are tested regularly to ensure they can detect counterfeit notes, by checking their ability to distinguish any new forgery discovered by the Bank's sophisticated testing methods.

The Bank of England has been issuing banknotes since 1694. De La Rue (then named Thomas de la Rue after its founder) began printing banknotes in 1860. It now makes banknotes for more than 150 national currencies as well as paper for other secure applications.

The banknote is in uncirculated condition.

On 4 November 2011, a message was received from Kevin Wills, Senior Manager of Anti-Counterfeiting Strategy, Bank of England, stating that he was bringing a banknote with him on a business trip to Sydney. Arrangements were made to meet at the Museum on 5 November, just three days after the new banknote was issued. When Kevin arrived at the Museum he was accompanied by Anthony McGrath, Senior Technical Expert, Notes Division - Quality and Research, Bank of England. The handover took place in front of the Boulton & Watt engine.

The banknote's serial number is very appropriate as the year 1888 saw the end of the engine's long working life and the beginning of its even longer life as an educational and inspirational exhibit.

Banknote, fifty pounds, Matthew Boulton and James Watt, serial number AA10 001888, paper / ink / metallic thread / micro-lenses, designed and made by Bank of England / De La Rue, Debden, United Kingdom, 2011

The predominant colour of the note is red, with some yellow and orange. The front of the note features a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, her symbol E II R, the facade and seal of the Bank of England, the words 'LONDON / FOR THE GOVERNOR AND COMPANY OF / THE BANK OF ENGLAND' above the signature of Chris Salmon and the words 'CHIEF CASHIER', the title 'Bank of England' above the words 'I PROMISE TO PAY THE BEARER ON DEMAND THE SUM OF FIFTY POUNDS', the words and symbols for 'fifty' and 'pounds' repeated in a variety of fonts, colours and point sizes, and detailed additional linework.

The back features portraits of Matthew Boulton and James Watt, a drawing of the Powerhouse Museum's Boulton and Watt engine, a drawing of Boulton's Soho Manufactory with a rider on horseback and horse-drawn carriage in front of it, the names and dates of both men, a quote from each (Boulton: 'I sell here, Sir, what all the world desires to have - POWER' and Watt: 'I can think of nothing else but this machine'), the words 'Bank Of England' and 'Fifty Pounds', the note's serial number written vertically at top left and horizontally at bottom right, symbols for fifty and fifty pounds, several gear wheels including one that resembles the engine's planet wheel, and a copyright symbol followed by the words 'GOVERNOR AND COMPANY OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND 2010'. A copy of the same drawing as on the note was given to the Museum at the time the engine was donated (object P1306); in it the engine is partially sectioned to reveal the separate condenser, Watt's most important innovation.

Security features visible in normal light include: raised print in certain places; a metallic thread running from top to bottom; watermark consisting of the Queen's portrait and the symbol for fifty pounds; very clear, sharp printing; micro-lettering in certain places; a see-through register, where shapes on the front and back of the note combine to form the pound symbol; and a green motion thread visible from the front. The motion thread is woven into the paper. It has five windows along its length which contain images of the pound symbol and the number 50. When the note is tilted from side to side, the images move up and down. When the note is tilted up and down, the images move from side to side and the number 50 and pound symbol switch.

Additional security features, applied using fluorescent inks, appear under ultraviolet light. The major one, on the front, is the appearance of the number 50, brightly chequered in red and green, at the same location as the E of the word 'England'. In addition, the windows in the motion thread appear bright green, and red and green flecks appear on both sides of the note.

Designed: 2011

Printed: 2011

2012/6/1

2011

84 mm