50%deposit Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgo...est/8075130.stm Surely they should have put Johann Gutenberg on instead? Two giants of the industrial age are to appear on a redesigned Bank of England £50 note.Scottish engineer James Watt and his business partner Matthew Boulton, from Birmingham, developed the steam engine. Bank of England governor Mervyn King said their 18th Century innovations were essential in driving Britain's Industrial Revolution. It is the first time two portraits have appeared together on the note. An image of the Queen appears on the other side. Inventor and mechanical engineer James Watt was born in Greenock in 1736 and carried out some of his first experiments with steam power in Glasgow. His partnership with Matthew Boulton, who owned the Soho Foundry in Birmingham, gave him access to the latest metal working techniques. Many of the advantages society now enjoys are due in large part to the vital role of engineering and the brilliance and foresight of people such as Boulton and Watt, Mervyn King Bank of England governor The resulting Boulton and Watt engine proved far more efficient than previous designs, and was soon being used in coal mines and cotton factories. The new banknote, to be launched in 18 months, includes an image of a steam engine and the Soho factory. Mervyn King said: "So many of the advantages society now enjoys are due in large part to the vital role of engineering and the brilliance and foresight of people such as Boulton and Watt, whose development and refinement of steam engines gave an incredible boost to the efficiency of industry." He added: "The unique and rare opportunity that the bank has through its banknotes to acknowledge and promote awareness of our nation's heritage of artistic, social and scientific endeavour is an honour for us. "The bank's choice of Boulton and Watt, a reminder of the invaluable contribution from engineering and the entrepreneurial spirit to the advancement of society, I think, well reflects this." The new note will circulate initially in tandem with the existing £50 note featuring the first Bank of England governor Sir John Houblon, but the older note will gradually be withdrawn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichM Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 The BoE have run out of puff alright. The value of the £50 is condensed they might as well boil up a few more denominations while they're at it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mammon Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 (edited) The BoE have run out of puff alright. The value of the £50 is condensed they might as well boil up a few more denominations while they're at it. Agree, a new £100 note is well overdue. The current £50 is the same size and also has the same spending power of a £10 note of 25 years ago. The current £5 note is the same size as the £1 note of 25 years ago. And the new £20 note is now the size of the old blue £5 note. Edited May 30, 2009 by Iron Condor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juvenal Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgo...est/8075130.stmSurely they should have put Johann Gutenberg on instead? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Methinkshe Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 Agree, a new £100 note is well overdue. The current £50 is the same size and also has the same spending power of a £10 note of 25 years ago. The current £5 note is the same size as the £1 note of 25 years ago. And the new £20 note is now the size of the old blue £5 note. You're making me all nostalgic! I remember the old ten-bob note - big and substantial and pink! Just holding one as a 10 yr old made me feel incredibly wealthy! The current value of a ten shilling note is 50p btw, for those who are too young to remember pre-decimal "proper" money. Yet I could buy 40 x threepenny Beanos with my 10s, or 40 x 3d Mars Bars or 20 sixpenny 99 ice-creams! Oh, was I rich on the day I found a 10 shilling note on the beach and having handed it in to the police, and nobody claimed it, it was all mine! I paid it into my Post Office savings account and eked it out for months to top up my pocket money which was 1d per week per year of age; 10d a week at 10 years old, 11d a week at 11 years old etc etc. It's almost impossible to imagine now how much one could buy with 11d - worth less than today's 5p. A comic, a Mars Bar, oh - and on Guy Fawkes Night, if one could cadge an extra penny, 4 Jumping Jacks at 3d each! Banned on H & S grounds - but they were the best fireworks ever! I'd better shut up, I've gone all misty-eyed and boring...............................sorry! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
50%deposit Posted May 30, 2009 Author Share Posted May 30, 2009 Its interesting to bear some of his background in mind: Around 1439, Gutenberg was involved in a financial misadventure making polished metal mirrors (which were believed to capture holy light from religious relics) for sale to pilgrims to Aachen: in 1439 the city was planning to exhibit its collection of relics from Emperor Charlemagne but the event was delayed by one year and the capital already spent could not be repaid. When the question of satisfying the investors came up, Gutenberg is said to have promised to share a "secret". It has been widely speculated that this secret may have been the idea of printing with movable type.[7] Legend has it that the idea came to him "like a ray of light".[8] he then went on to evelop the printing press which has been used by new papers to catpure 'truth', and governments for printing money which capture 'value'. i hear Gutenbergs secret was based around a formula know in historical terms since the late 15th centruy as the lol principle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnlyMe Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 Should put some twit banker on the back, as a lesson in history, a lesson which none of the current crop want to learn from. It has to be staring them in the face for them to take notice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Take Me Back To London! Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 Agree, a new £100 note is well overdue. The current £50 is the same size and also has the same spending power of a £10 note of 25 years ago. The current £5 note is the same size as the £1 note of 25 years ago. And the new £20 note is now the size of the old blue £5 note. The modern £50 note has a lot less spending power than it did when it came out in 1981, however it has never really caught on and is still given extra scrutiny when tendered. In Europe the 50 euro note is very common and is regularly dispensed by cashpoint machines, in Austria the 100 euro note is also often dispensed from a cashpoint. The Bank of England should be printing more new £5 notes and replacing worn out 25 year-old £1 coins, before worrying about a new design for the fifty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Take Me Back To London! Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 The BoE have run out of puff alright. The value of the £50 is condensed they might as well boil up a few more denominations while they're at it. How about following Zimbabwe and printing a one hundred trillion bank note. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichM Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 The BoE have run out of puff alright. The value of the £50 is so condensed they might as well boil up a few more denominations while they're at it. Doya geddit???!!! Back in the day we'd have had 3 pages of stea engine-related puns by now. This site's not what it was Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
50%deposit Posted May 30, 2009 Author Share Posted May 30, 2009 the new £50 note Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y-QUERK Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 You'll never know where that note has been. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloo Loo Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 You're making me all nostalgic! I remember the old ten-bob note - big and substantial and pink! Just holding one as a 10 yr old made me feel incredibly wealthy! The current value of a ten shilling note is 50p btw, for those who are too young to remember pre-decimal "proper" money. Yet I could buy 40 x threepenny Beanos with my 10s, or 40 x 3d Mars Bars or 20 sixpenny 99 ice-creams! Oh, was I rich on the day I found a 10 shilling note on the beach and having handed it in to the police, and nobody claimed it, it was all mine! I paid it into my Post Office savings account and eked it out for months to top up my pocket money which was 1d per week per year of age; 10d a week at 10 years old, 11d a week at 11 years old etc etc. It's almost impossible to imagine now how much one could buy with 11d - worth less than today's 5p. A comic, a Mars Bar, oh - and on Guy Fawkes Night, if one could cadge an extra penny, 4 Jumping Jacks at 3d each! Banned on H & S grounds - but they were the best fireworks ever! I'd better shut up, I've gone all misty-eyed and boring...............................sorry! you are worth a crisp oncer in my book, any day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloo Loo Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 the new £50 note yep, its definitely going down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Methinkshe Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 you are worth a crisp oncer in my book, any day. ....is that all? I need to try harder, then.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloo Loo Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 ....is that all?I need to try harder, then.... tee hee, now we know what sort of lady you are, its just a question of negotiating the price... teehee bet Im cheaper than you though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timm Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 Does anyone know how may £50 notes exist currently? And how many new ones they will be printing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Methinkshe Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 (edited) tee hee, now we know what sort of lady you are, its just a question of negotiating the price...teehee Ow! That was a bit below the belt! bet Im cheaper than you though. Ah, but what is the measure? Edited for missing word. Edited May 30, 2009 by Methinkshe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloo Loo Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 snipAh, but what is the measure? snip quality, of course. Im interested in the below the belt proposition though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Methinkshe Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 quality, of course.Im interested in the below the belt proposition though. Don't be so naughty. Now, please excuse me - I have to go and attend to my toad-in-the-hole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conspirator Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 Looking at the BBC News article, I'm a little concerned over the quotes they seem to be choosing for the new notes: "I sell Sir, what all the world desires to have... POWER" might as well be talking about modern day MPs, "I can think of nothing else but this machine" might as well be talking about the rest of us. Add this, of course, to the mangled Adam Smith misquote on the current £20. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habeas Domus Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 The Bank of England should be printing more new £5 notes and replacing worn out 25 year-old £1 coins, before worrying about a new design for the fifty. Yes and start replacing some of the fakes - official figures have them as about 5% but I've found in the big cities its more like 50% of £1 coins that are fake now. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime...ns-1519082.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
50%deposit Posted May 30, 2009 Author Share Posted May 30, 2009 Wow - I have a tub of loose change and using the chart below thought id try to find some fake pound coins: i have 11 coins, and starting with the print on the side i began to look, and wow, you dont have to look hard. I found one straight off. that chart is pretty accurate. It looks really worn i feel ripped off. what do i do? try and spend it? i have to? im going to check every pound coin i get from now on!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloo Loo Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 Wow - I have a tub of loose change and using the chart below thought id try to find some fake pound coins: i have 11 coins, and starting with the print on the side i began to look, and wow, you dont have to look hard. I found one straight off. that chart is pretty accurate. It looks really worn i feel ripped off. what do i do? try and spend it? i have to? im going to check every pound coin i get from now on!!! funny, but the one on the right is a genuine QE, straight form the BoE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cogs Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 For some reason this just makes me angry. Mervyn King said: "So many of the advantages society now enjoys are due in large part to the vital role of engineering and the brilliance and foresight of people such as Boulton and Watt, whose development and refinement of steam engines gave an incredible boost to the efficiency of industry." Yeah, whatever Merv. A more honest approach would have been to put Flash Harry and Private Walker on the note instead given it is their sort for whom economic policy has been shaped over the last 30 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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