A new £50 note that honors British mathematician and computer technology pioneer Alan Turing with his profile on the currency was released by the Bank of England Friday.
The new £50 note features a number of clever visuals referencing Turing's work, considered to be one of the defining keys that led to the Allies winning World War II. Turning developed an early form of the computer, which broke Germany's infamous Enigma cipher.
Despite his contributions to the war effort, Turing died as an outcast after he was persecuted by the government over his homosexuality.
The unveiling of the new note honoring Turing comes nearly two years after the British government announced that it would honor the war hero by releasing a banknote featuring his work. The Bank of England said that the new note will officially enter into circulation on June 23, on Turing's birthday.
Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said that Turing's work had shortened the war by two years, helping save millions of lives. Bailey said that apart from the war, Turing also helped accelerate the development of technologies such as computing and artificial intelligence.
Bailey also touched on Turing's sexual preference and the injustice he faced during his time.
"Alan Turing was a gay man, whose transformational work in the fields of computer science, codebreaking, and developmental biology, was still not enough to spare him the appalling treatment to which he was subjected," Bailey said.
The new £50 will be made entirely out of polymer instead of paper. Bailey said that the material is more durable and will be harder to counterfeit. The note will complete the Bank of England's new set of polymer banknotes, which includes the Winston Churchill £5, Jane Austen £10, and J.M.W. Turner £20.
Turing was selected to be on the new banknote after the public was asked to nominate scientists they would like to be featured. Bailey said that the bank received nearly 250,000 responses from members of the public.
The Banknote Character Advisory Committee shortlisted Turing out of 1,000 unique nominations. Turing eventually won over contenders such as Stephen Hawking, Rosalind Franklin, and Ada Lovelace.
