What will the new £50 be like

The new £50 being issued on 2nd November will have the Industrial Revolution heroes Boulton and Watt on the reverse as the Bank of England explains.

But what else?

It'll be the same size as the existing £50 note.

It will have extra security features. The Bank is keeping mum on these. But each note tends to have something novel. The Adam Smith £20 of 4 years ago had a "see-through register", a series of coloured irregular shapes printed on the front and back which form the £ symbol if you look through the note.

So expect more bumpy lettering, very small lettering,  a metallic thread, watermarks and holographic images, plus something extra.

The Bank wants the new fifties to be more available and accepted in shops, hence the noise about extra security.

They had to take 300,000 counterfeit banknotes out of circulation last year.

There weren't significantly more forgeries of fifties than other notes. The problem is that fifties are worth so much more so traders are ultra-careful.