Shoppers urged to spend or deposit their old-style £50 notes
16/01/2014
Shoppers in the possession of old-style £50 notes featuring the image of Sir John Houblon have been warned that some retailers and banks could decline to accept the notes as of May 2014.
The old-style note is being withdrawn from circulation by the Bank of England, meaning it will no longer be a widely accepted form of legal tender. However, Barclays, Natwest, RBS, Ulster Bank and the Post Office will still exchange these notes until 30 October, but only to the value of £200.
All other notes that no longer hold legal tender status, such as the Houblon £50 note, can be exchanged directly at the Bank of England at any time, but this would mean traveling to the Banks head offices in London.
The good news for anyone in possession of a Houblon £50 note is that up until April 30th, these can be exchanged for a new, legal tender at any Bank.
Sir John Houblon was the Bank of England’s first governor, but has been replaced on the £50 note with Matthew Boulton and James Watt, who were chosen due to their part in helping to create coins that were difficult to counterfeit.
However, despite the replacement of Houblon on the £50 note in November 2011, out of the 224 million £50 notes in circulation, it’s estimated that around 63 million of these bear the Houblon image.
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