Only six days remain for Brits to spend £11 billion ($12.4 billion) in paper currency before it no longer qualifies as legal money. The Bank of England (BOE) said on Friday that as of September 30, over £5 billion in old £20 notes and around £6 billion in old £50 notes will no longer be accepted by UK companies. More than 360 million notes will be removed from circulation in total.
People only have a little time frame to spend their money. The polymer £20 and £50 notes, which have been in use for more than two years, will replace the paper notes (since February 2020). Old banknotes with the faces of Adam Smith, Matthew Boulton, and James Watt will also no longer be recognised as lawful money starting the next week, according to Mirror UK. On the £20 and £50 notes, respectively, their successors will include images of J. M. W. Turner and Alan Turing.
According to Bloomberg, the paper currency may be exchanged for new bills made of polymer by visiting the BOE’s Threadneedle Street offices in London, mailing them, or exchanging them at particular Post Offices. Additionally, they can be placed in a number of commercial banks’ accounts.
The switch to polymer notes was decided upon in order to strengthen the notes’ resilience to damage and combat illegitimate counterfeiting. In the future, the synthetic notes will also be changed in order to facilitate the circulation of notes displaying the picture of King Charles and to progressively phase out notes depicting the late Queen.
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