NEWS: Bank launches new £50 note

Every few years the Bank of England updates its bank notes. Today it's the turn of the £50.

Now, if you're like me, you rarely ever see a £50 bank note - and the only mention of them is signs in large number of shops saying theywon't accept them.

The current (soon to be phased out) £50 has certainly had it's problems. It's been way too easy to forge and, of course, the criminal underworld has latched onto that.

The new note has upped the security game with plenty of new things to prevent, or at least limit, counterfeiting.

One of the most interesting thigs about bank notes is, of course, who appears on them. It's a mix of the great and the good.

Here's the current roll call:

£5 - Elizabeth Fry - philanthropist who campaigned for better prison conditions

£10 - Charles Darwin - naturalist who proposed the Theory of Evolution

£20 - Adam Smith - economist

£50 - Matthew Boulton & James Watt - developers of the steam engine

Of course, the old £50 remains in circulation for a while. That has a picture of John Houblon! The first Governor of the Bank of England.