Issued Fifty Pound notes

[Mac]

There are very few issued £50 notes known from the pre-partition era.

Northern Bank £20, £50, and £100 notes from the 1914-1918 era which were overprinted for use in Northern Ireland post 6 May 1929 are well-known, and most varieties are readily available.



Nothern Bank Fifty Pounds 1914 with 1929 overprint.

[Mac]

By contrast, here is one of the rarest of Irish notes!



Bank of Ireland 50 Pounds 1908

[Mac]

Equally rare, a Belfast Banking company General Issue £50 note.
It's in nice condition too.


Belfast Banking Company 50 Pounds 1917

[Mac]

Here are two more megga rare Bank of Ireland £50 notes, from well before the multi-branch General Issue era.


Bank of Ireland 50 Pounds 1827


Bank of Ireland 50 Pounds 1831

More early Bank of Ireland notes are on the main website.

[DOC]

Fifty pounds was a huge sum of money in the era of the old banknotes and it is unlikely that any issued, non-cancelled notes would have been retained except by accident. However, examples of early £50 notes are available to collectors in the form of cancelled or specimen notes.

Here is an example of a Provincial Bank, Limerick Branch, specimen note from the 1830’s with portrait of William IV.

[DOC]

Here is an interesting example of a £50 Belfast Banking Company proof note showing on the front the design used for the Original Issue (1827-1850) and on the reverse Belfast Banking Company Limited implying a date post 1883. PMI proposes that these mismatched proofs may have been prepared in 1922 from original plates for archival purposes.

An Original Issue £50 uniface proof note is also known from the 1827-1850 era but no examples of issued notes from the original Issue are known to have survived.

[Mac]

Useful as an example of the reverse printing of the multibranch General Issue £50 notes, showing the microprinting in the central panel.