New £5 Note Is On Its Way
Share:
Plastic £5 notes? It’s the future, people.
The polymer note, which will be shipping all over the UK this month, will be available from a select few banks and cash points. The plastic note will be much more durable than the original. Cash points in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Hull and Cardiff will be the first to stock them.
However, only 7% of cash machines even dispense £5 notes as it stands.
Further north, Scotland have been implementing plastic notes since March 2015.
The governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, said that the new note would be cleaner, safer and stronger, but not indestructible.
The new polymer notes are expected to have a life span of five years, as opposed to the current two years the £5 note lasts.
A grand total of 440 million new £5 notes have been created. The polymer version of the £10 note featuring Jane Austen will be released next year, and in 2020, and featuring the artist Turner, the £20 note will be released to the public also.
The new notes will also be easier for visually impaired people to use, as the notes have raised dots on them, and bold numerals to better discern which note is which. Chief cashier Victoria Cleland said “In addition, polymer £10 and £20 notes will each have a tactile feature created by a series of raised dots, and the £5 note will be distinguishable by the absence of a feature.”