News

The New Fiver is Coming

7 September 2016

By Joseph

Less than a week to go now until we get our hands on the brand new fiver issued by the Bank of England to replace the current notes. What’s special about the new fiver is the material it’s made from, which is constructed with plastic, or, as the bank prefers to call it, polymer – presumably because it sounds a bit less tacky and well… cheap…

Once issued on the 13th September (fortunately that’s not a Friday), the polymer note will be sporting a portrait of Winston Churchill on one side and, as you may have guessed, the Queen on the other. The current paper £5 note will remain legal tender until it’s withdrawn from circulation in May 2017, at which point genuine remaining examples can be exchanged at face value with the Bank Of England. Following on from the new fiver, a polymer £10 note – featuring Jane Austen – will be issued in summer 2017 and a polymer £20 note – featuring JMW Turner (painter) –will see the light of day by 2020. In regards to the elusive £50 note, the bank has not yet made a decision on whether the denomination will be polymerised. Therefore, we have the paradoxical situation that £5, £10 and £20 notes themselves could be more valuable than the higher denomination £50 note since polymer bank notes are estimated to cost 50% more than cotton-paper examples. However, since polymer notes are more durable the bank does expect to have to pay less to replace notes in circulation.

One of the main advantages of polymer banknotes is their improved safety features that make them harder to replicate – for example, a transparent area of the new note with a portrait of the Queen superimposed onto it – and a whole host of security features only detectable to machines.

As countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand have already experienced, the polymer banknotes do suffer from a few problems that don’t affect paper notes. Firstly, they may stick together, especially when new, so we’ll have to be extra diligent when dealing with the new notes during their first few weeks and months. Furthermore, they have been known to melt or distort in high temperatures, although the Bank of England says the notes wouldn’t be damaged until at least 120 degrees Celsius. On the plus side though, they’re 15% smaller so shouldn’t hang out your wallets and are supposedly resistant to spending a little time in the washing machine…

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