5 Pounds Ulster Bank

Ulster Bank's pre-decimalization £5 note from 1966 sits in an awkward historical moment: the bank knew decimalization was coming — the Halsbury Committee had already reported in 1963 recommending the change — yet continued issuing traditional £ s d denominations until the system switched in February 1971. Notes from this late pre-decimal window were withdrawn relatively quickly once new designs were introduced, limiting their time in active use.

Bradbury Wilkinson's New Malden works handled security printing for dozens of colonial and commercial bank clients during this period; their intaglio work on Ulster Bank issues is consistently fine, though the 1966 series is less technically ambitious than some of their concurrent Commonwealth commissions.