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50 Pounds - Guinevere
| Issuer | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Year | 2020 |
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| Currency | Pound sterling (decimalized, 1971-date) |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of Queen Guinevere, legendary consort of King Arthur, rendered in a stylised portrait. Inscriptions include "THE WHITE ENCHANTRESS", "FAY GWYN", "BORN, CIRCA 490 AD", and "NOT LEGAL TENDER", confirming the fantasy nature of the issue. Denomination of £50 appears alongside "LEGEND SERIES 2020" and "Great Britain". |
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| Obverse lettering | Guinevere £50 THE WHITE ENCHANTRESS Great Britain FIFTY POUNDS 50 BORN, CIRCA 490 AD FAY GWYN LEGEND SERIES 2020 NOT LEGAL TENDER |
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| Comments |
The Guinevere nickname is collector slang that never caught on officially — this is the Alan Turing £50, the last note in the Bank of England's transition from paper to polymer across all four main denominations. Turing was chosen following a public nomination process, the first time the Bank had crowdsourced a selection at this scale. The announcement came in 2019, the centenary of his birth narrowly missed — he was born in 1912, making 2012 the actual centenary, though the note itself arrived eight years after that milestone.
Polymer £50 notes enter circulation slowly by design; the high denomination means fewer transactions and slower dispersal through the banking system. Early print runs from De La Rue showed no significant technical defects — unlike the Churchill £5, which attracted complaints about melting near heat sources in 2016.