Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
50 Pounds Ulster Bank
| Issuer | Ulster Bank Limited |
|---|---|
| Year | 1941-1943 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Pound sterling (1929-date) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | At centre top, a central oval vignette presents a sailing ship at sea, flanked by two smaller oval panels each bearing the word FIFTY in white on a dark ground. Ornate guilloche borders run vertically along both left and right margins, with the denomination numeral 50 at each corner. A large blue letterpress FIFTY underprint spans the middle of the note, above the printed promise-to-pay text and manuscript signature, with the imprint of Charles Skipper and East, London, at the lower centre. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Ulster Bank Limited Northern Ireland Issue I Promise to pay the Bearer on Demand Fifty Pounds Sterling at the Head Office of the Bank in Belfast For the Ulster Bank Limited Belfast |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Ulster Bank's wartime £50 notes occupy an unusual position in Northern Irish private bank issues. The denomination itself was never a workhorse of commerce — a £50 note in the early 1940s represented a substantial sum well beyond routine retail use, and these circulated almost entirely between businesses and financial institutions. Survival rates are poor not because of heavy handling but because large-denomination commercial notes were routinely destroyed upon return to the bank rather than reissued.
Charles Skipper & East had a long relationship with Irish private banks stretching back decades before this series, which is partly why the London firm continued to receive contracts even as wartime conditions complicated transatlantic and cross-channel logistics.