The Bank of England, the central bank of the United Kingdom, has issued banknotes since 1694. In 1921 it gained a legal monopoly on the issue of banknotes in England and Wales, a process that started with the Bank Charter Act 1844, when the power of other banks to issue notes was restricted. Only the Bank of England can issue banknotes in England and Wales, where its notes are legal tender. They are not legal tender in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but are accepted there by traders alongside their local notes.
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. The Bank of England now issues notes for circulation, all in polymer, in four denominations: £5, £10, £20, and £50.
Since 1970, the Bank of England's notes have featured portraits of British historical figures. In March 2026, the Bank announced that British wildlife and British birds are set to feature on the next series of notes.
Current banknotes As of 2026, there are four different circulating denominations of notes: £5, £10, £20, and £50 in the current series, series G. Each hold legal tender status in England and Wales, though this refers to the settlement of debts and retailers can refuse them. The notes have distinct colours, and the size of the notes increases in length and width as the value increases. They all feature a portrait of Elizabeth II or Charles III on the obverse. The Bank of England introduced its Series G set of banknotes between 2016 and 2021. Following the death of Elizabeth II in 2022, the Bank unveiled new notes, in the same design but featuring Charles III, on 20 December 2022. These notes entered circulation on 5 June 2024.
All current Bank of England banknotes are printed under contract by De La Rue at Debden, Essex. They include the printed signature of the Chief Cashier of the Bank of England and depict the British monarch in full view, facing left. They also include the EURion constellation, a pattern of yellow circles which stops copying of banknotes and is easily identified by photocopiers.
On 2 July 2025, the Bank of England launched a month-long consultation, seeking ideas from the public on replacing historical figures with new features on the next design of Series H banknotes. On 11 March 2026, The Bank announced that British wildlife and British birds are set to feature on its notes, with a public consultation inviting suggestions for the specific animals to be depicted.
The table below shows the notes currently in circulation. Two issue dates are given for each note: the first is for the Elizabeth II issue; the second date is for the Charles III issue. + Current banknotes (Series G), all in polymer Image Value Dimensions(millimetres) Main colour Features of the reverse of the note Issue dates Further information Obverse Reverse £5 125 × 65 Turquoise-Blue The 1941 portrait of Winston Churchill by Yousuf Karsh The Elizabeth Tower The maze at Blenheim Palace The quotation "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat" from a 1940 speech by Churchill The Nobel Prize medal. 13 September 20165 June 2024 This was the Bank of England's first banknote to be printed in polymer. £10 132 × 69 Orange A portrait of author Jane Austen (c. 1810) by James Andrews, based on a portrait by her sister, Cassandra The quotation "I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!" from Pride and Prejudice An illustration of Elizabeth Bennet A view of Godmersham Park in Kent. 14 September 20175 June 2024 £20 139 × 73 Purple A self-portrait (c. 1799) of artist J. M. W. Turner A version of Turner's The Fighting Temeraire The quotation "Light is therefore colour" from an 1818 lecture by Turner Turner's signature as made on his will. 20 February 20205 June 2024 £50 146 × 77 Red A photograph of mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing by Elliott & Fry An image of Turing's Automatic Computing Engine A table of formulae from Turing's 1936 work On Computable Numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem The quotation "This is only a foretaste of what is to come and only the shadow of what is going to be" from Alan Turing, given in an interview to The Times on 11 June 1949. 23 June 20215 June 2024Turing is the first known LGBT person to feature on a Bank of England banknote. This was the final Series G polymer note to be issued.
Withdrawn banknotes +Withdrawn Bank of England notes since Series D Image Value Reverse portrait Issued Withdrawn Series D 10 shillings (50p) Sir Walter Raleigh Approved in 1964 but never issued £1 Sir Isaac Newton 9 February 1978 11 March 1988 £5 Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington 11 November 1971 29 November 1991 £10 Florence Nightingale 20 February 1975 20 May 1994 £20 William Shakespeare 9 July 1970 19 March 1993 £50 Sir Christopher Wren 20 March 1981 20 September 1996 Series E £5 George Stephenson 7 June 1990 21 November 2003 £10 Charles Dickens 29 April 1992 31 July 2003 £20 Michael Faraday 5 June 1991 28 February 2001 £50 Sir John Houblon 20 April 1994 30 April 2014 Series E (Variant) £5 Elizabeth Fry 21 May 2002 5 May 2017 £10 Charles Darwin7 November 2000 1 March 2018 £20 Sir Edward Elgar 22 June 1999 20 June 2010 £50 Never issued Series F £5Never issued £10Never issued £20 Adam Smith 13 March 2007 30 September 2022 £50 Matthew Boulton and James Watt 2 November 2011
Although Scotland, Northern Ireland and Channel Islands have £100 notes, the Bank of England has not issued them since 1945.
History The Bank of England now has a monopoly of note issue in England and Wales, but this has not always been the case. Until the middle of the 19th century, private banks in Great Britain and Ireland were free to issue their own banknotes, and notes issued by provincial banking companies were commonly in circulation. Over the years, various acts of Parliament were introduced in the United Kingdom to increase confidence in banknotes in circulation by limiting the rights of banks to issue notes.
Provincial banknote issues Attempts to restrict banknote issue by banks other than the Bank of England began in 1708 and 1709, when acts of Parliament were passed which prohibited banking companies of more than six partners or shareholders. Notes under 1 guinea and 5 guineas were prohibited in the 1770s and thereafter almost all the provincial banks were established by the more substantial merchants, landed gentry etc. of a town and district.
Gold shortages Gold shortages in the 18th century, caused by the Seven Years' War and war with Revolutionary France, began to affect the supply of gold bullion reserves, giving rise to the "Restriction period". The Bank of England was unable to pay out gold for its notes, and so under the Bank Restriction Act 1797 began to issue lower denomination £1 and £2 notes in place of gold guineas, that were hoarded as so often was the case in time of war. Confidence in the value of banknotes was rarely affected, except during 1809–11 and 1814–15 under the extreme conditions of war.
Restriction of banknote issues The Country Bankers Act 1826 allowed some joint-stock banks outside London to issue notes, and also allowed the Bank of England to open branches in major provincial cities, enabling better distribution of its notes.
Introduction of legal tender With the passing of the Bank Notes Act 1833, Bank of England notes over £5 in value were first given the status of "legal tender" in England and Wales, effectively guaranteeing the worth of the Bank's notes and ensuring public confidence in the notes in times of crisis or war. The Currency and Bank Notes Act 1954 extended the definition of legal tender to 10/– and £1 notes; unlike the 1833 act, this law also applied to Scotland, meaning that Bank of England notes under £5 were classed as legal tender. Due to inflation the Bank of England 10/– note was withdrawn in 1969 and the £1 was removed from circulation in 1988, leaving a legal curiosity in Scots law whereby there is now no paper legal tender in Scotland. (Notes issued by Scottish banks were not included in the 1833 or 1954 acts.)
Note-issuing monopoly
The Bank Charter Act 1844 began the process which gave the Bank of England exclusive note-issuing powers in England and Wales. Under the act, no new banks could start issuing notes, and note-issuing banks in England and Wales were barred from expanding their note issue. Gradually, these banks vanished through mergers, closures and take-overs, and their note issues went with them. The last privately issued banknotes in Wales were withdrawn in 1908, on the closure of the last Welsh bank, the North and South Wales Bank. The last private English banknotes were issued in 1921 by Fox, Fowler and Company, a Somerset bank, when it was bought out by Lloyds Bank.Mathias, Peter, The First Industrial Nation, Routledge, pp. 326, Under the terms of the Bank Charter Act 1844, the bank lost the legal right to issue banknotes when it merged with Lloyds, and the Bank of England became the sole note-issuing bank in England and Wales.
Note printing Notes were originally handwritten; 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. Until 1928 all notes were the monochromatic Series A type, printed in black with a blank reverse. During the 20th century, notes in Series A were issued in denominations between £5 and £1,000, but in the 18th and 19th centuries there were Series A notes for £1 and £2.
20th and 21st centuries
The Bank of England's first issue of 10/– and £1 notes in the 20th century was on 22 November 1928 when it took over responsibility for these denominations from the Treasury. The Treasury had issued notes of these denominations at the start of the First World War in 1914 in order to supplant the sovereign and half-sovereign and remove gold coins from circulation. The notes issued by the Bank of England in 1928 were the first coloured banknotes and also the first notes to be printed on both sides.
The Second World War saw a reversal in the trend of warfare creating more notes when, in order to combat forgery, higher denomination notes (at the time as high as £1,000) were removed from circulation.
Until her death in 2022, Queen Elizabeth II had appeared on all the notes issued since Series C in 1960. The custom of depicting historical figures on the reverse began in 1970 with Series D, designed by the Bank of England's first permanent artist, Harry Eccleston.
Denominations Banknotes in various denominations have been issued over time. The denominations are listed in this table, using information from the Bank of England's Withdrawn Banknotes Reference Guide: +DenominationFirst issuedLast issuedNotes10 shillings (50p)19281970£117971988£217971821£2 notes were issued on the orders of British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger as smaller denomination notes were needed to replace gold coins during the French Revolutionary Wars.£51793Still in circulationSeries G notes are legal tender in England and Wales.£101759£1517591822£201725Still in circulationSeries G notes are legal tender in England and Wales.£2517651822£3017251852£401851£50Still in circulation Series G notes are legal tender in England and Wales. Legal tender refers to the settlement of debts, and many retailers do not accept £50 notes.£60Before 1803£70£80£90£1001943Some of the Channel Islands and most of the Scottish and Northern Ireland banks still issue £100 notes.£2001725–451928£3001855£5001943£1,000£1,000,0001943Non-circulating; used by the Bank to back Scottish and Northern Ireland notes. Not permitted to leave the Bank of England building in London.£10,000,000£100,000,000
10/–