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Boulton and Watt Honored on New Note
 | By Kerry Rodgers, Bank Note Reporter
June 19, 2009 |
On May 29 Bank of England governor Mervyn King announced that 18th-century entrepreneur Matthew Boulton and his business partner, engineer James Watt, will be featured on the Bank of England's new £50 bank note.
This note will be the second in the bank's Series F family that commenced with the Adam Smith £20 note in 2007. It will have similar appearance to the £20 but for the first time two portraits will appear on the note's back. Continuity in the series is provided by the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on the note's front, the same vignette first used in 1990.
King made the announcement at the opening of a new exhibition at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: "Matthew Boulton: Selling what all the world desires." The exposition marks the 200th anniversary of Boulton's death.
Boulton is one of Birmingham's favorite sons. He joined the family business at the age of 21 and turned it into a major manufacturing concern producing a vast range of high quality small metal products using assembly line mass production.
He was way ahead of his time. His workers enjoyed clean, well-lit and well-ventilated premises. His Birmingham factory was known as the "Soho Manufactory." It was the focus of his activities and an industrial showpiece.
In 1767 Boulton struck up the acquaintance of Scot James Watt. Boulton was looking for some way to increase his throughput. To do so he required more power. Watt for his part needed facilities to develop and manufacture his new-fangled steam engine. In 1772 Boulton accepted a two-thirds share in Watt's patent in payment for outstanding debts, thereby getting his sought for power by way of steam.
In 1775 the two entered into a formal partnership with Boulton providing the facilities, capital and wherewithal to ensure Watt's steam engine became a commercial success. It was the Boulton & Watt steam engine that would help power the Industrial Revolution.
It was, after all, a Boulton & Watt engine coupled to a pneumatic five-inch screw coining press that ushered in the era of high quality, mass produced, milled coins of uniform size and weight.
At the exhibition launch, King observed, "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 endeavor is an honor 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."
Andrew Bailey, the bank's executive director-banking services and chief cashier, and whose signature appears on Bank of England bank notes, also spoke at the opening. He commented, "Not only am I delighted with the proposed design for the banknote but I am pleased too that the Bank has the opportunity again to introduce advances in anti-counterfeiting measures which have come on stream."
Further details of the design and the range of security features to be included on the new note will be revealed when the new note is launched.
And when the new Boulton and Watt £50 bank note finally appears it will circulate in tandem with the current £50 bank note introduced in 1994, P-388. That earlier note features Sir John Houblon, the first governor of the Bank of England. The only previous £50 bank note design was the Wren bank note, introduced in 1981 and withdrawn from circulation in 1996, P-381. Prior to this white £50s were issued between 1725 and 1943.
Trivia buffs may want to know that at the end of December 2008 there were some 171 million £50 bank notes in circulation in the United Kingdom, representing 6.7 percent of total notes by volume or 18.8 percent by value.
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