50 Pounds Belfast Banking Company

The Belfast Banking Company Limited occupied a peculiar position in Irish banking history — it was one of the Ulster joint-stock banks that continued issuing its own notes well after partition in 1921, operating entirely within Northern Ireland while remaining legally distinct from both the Bank of England and the newly established Free State banking system. This £50 note sits at the high end of a series that ran largely unchanged for four decades, which itself tells you something about how rarely the denomination was used in everyday trade.

The company was absorbed by the Midland Bank in 1970, ending over 130 years of independent note issue.