When is the new £50 note out and when do the old ones expire?

25 March 2021, 11:15

The Bank of England has released their Alan Turing £50 note but when will it come out? And what’s the expiry date of the old £50 note? Here’s the latest.

National hero Alan Turing has officially appeared on the new £50 note as revealed by the Bank of England.

The last of the Bank’s pound notes to be transferred from paper to polymer, the mathematician’s £50 note not only celebrates his success, but also includes GCHQ’s toughest puzzle ever in his honour.

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With everyone fascinated by the new money, here’s when the new £50 note will come out into circulation and when the old £50 note will expire. Here’s everything you need to know:

When will the new £50 note come out?

With the Bank of England officially releasing the design for the new money today, it won’t be long until it comes into circulation in England.

The new £50 note will enter circulation from 23 June - two days after all coronavirus lockdown measures are predicted to end and on Alan Turing’s 99th birthday.

When will the old £50 notes expire?

At the moment, no date has been given as to when you can spend your old £50 notes.

It’s expected they will be accepted in shops for some time.

Why is Alan Turing on the £50 note?

For those that don’t know, Alan Turing was a pioneer of modern computing and hugely instrumental in breaking the German Naval Enigma cipher in 1942, at Bletchley Park - GCHQ's wartime home.

But despite his incredible war effort and the countless lives he would have saved by his genius, he was persecuted by the Government because he was gay.

In January 1952, Mr Turing was prosecuted for "indecency" over his relationship with another man, and had to choose between imprisonment or probation on condition of undergoing hormone treatment.

Mr Turing died in 1954 which was recorded as suicide.

Director of the cyber and intelligence agency Jeremy Fleming described him becoming the first gay man to appear on a banknote as confirming his status as "one of the most iconic LGBT+ figures in the world".