Bank of England note issues

Bank of England note issues

The UK (red) and overseas territories (blue) using the Pound or their local issue
ISO 4217
Code	GBP (Great Britain Pound)
Denominations
Currency symbol £ Subunit Penny (1/100) Subunit symbol p Banknotes Denominations £5, £10, £20, £50
Demographics
Users	United Kingdom Jersey Guernsey Isle of Man South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (Tristan da Cunha only)
Legal Tender in	England and Wales
Issuance
Issued by	Bank of England
Printer	De La Rue

The Bank of England, which is now the Central Bank of the United Kingdom, has issued banknotes since 1694. In 1921 The Bank of England gained a legal monopoly on the issue of banknotes in England and Wales, a process that started with the Bank Charter Act of 1844 when the ability of other banks to issue notes was restricted.

Banknotes were originally hand-written; although they were partially printed from 1725 onwards, cashiers still had to sign each note and make them payable to someone. Notes were fully printed from 1855. Since 1970, the Bank of England's notes have featured portraits of British historical figures.

Of the eight banks authorised to issue banknotes in the UK, only the Bank of England can issue banknotes in England and Wales, where its notes are legal tender. Bank of England notes are not legal tender in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but are accepted there along with the respective countries' national banknotes.

There are currently four different denominations of notes – £5, £10, £20 and £50 – in circulation and five different notes. Each value has its own distinct colour scheme and the size of each note increases in length and width as the value increases.

There are two £5 note designs in circulation: the paper one is being phased out and will cease to be legal tender on 5 May 2017.

These images are to scale at 0.7 pixels per millimetre. For table standards, see the banknote specification table.

Source: Bank of England website

All current Bank of England banknotes are printed by contract with De La Rue at Debden, Essex. They include the printed signature of the Chief Cashier of the Bank of England (Victoria Cleland for notes issued since September 2015). All the notes issued since Series C in 1960 also depict Elizabeth II in full view, facing left. A watermark, hidden, featuring the Queen facing right is shown in the left hand side of the £20 and £50, and the central window of the paper £5 and £10. The new polymer notes do not contain a watermark. More recent issues also include the EURion constellation. This is a pattern of yellow circles which stop copying of banknotes. They are easily identified by photocopiers.