This new style ยฃ50 Note is signed by Chris Salmon who is Executive Director, Banking & Chief Cashier from April 2011
This style of Fifty Pound Note featuring Matthew Boulton and James Watt was issued on the 2 November 2011 and is withdrawn from circulation on 30th September 2022
Queen Elizabeth II (1926 โ 2022) is the monarch pictured on this ยฃ50 note.
Matthew Boulton and James Watt Fifty Pound Note Rear
On the rear of the Boulton and Watt ยฃ50 note this wording is printed:
Matthew Boulton 1728 โ 1809 โI sell here, Sir, what all the world desires to have โ POWERโ
and James Watt 1736 โ 1819 โI can think of nothing else but this machineโ
Power
The POWER that the Matthew Boulton quote refers to is motive power. The sort of power that can do work, it can make machines move. This power was generated from a steam engine. These steam engines could be used to run anything from pumps to drain mines to lapping machines. These lapping machines are use to polish with a rotating disc.
this machine
The machine that James Watt is referring to in his quote on the ยฃ50 note is the Steam Engine. Heating water to produce steam causes the water volume to increase many times as it changes to a gas (steam). The steam can move a piston, the piston can move a machine. It is the conversion of the fuel (burning wood, coal, oil etc) to heat the water in the steam engine that converts an inanimate fuel to machine movement. This new invention needed improvement and increases in efficiency. It was these problems that James Watt was solving when he said โI can think of nothing elseโฆโ