ONE WEEK REMAINS FOR BRITS TO SPEND OLD BANKNOTES WORTH £11 BILLION

Sun 25 September 2022:

Only six days remain for Britons to spend £11 billion ($12.4 billion) in paper currency before it no longer qualifies as legal tender.

The Bank of England (BOE) announced Friday that as of September 30, about £6 billion in old £50 notes and more than £5 billion in old £20 notes will no longer be recognised by UK businesses. There are more than 360 million notes in all that will be taken out of circulation.

People only have a brief window of opportunity 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).

There’s 1 week left to use your paper £20 and £50 banknotes. All polymer notes carrying a portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II can continue to be used as normal after 30 September. https://t.co/0wA5voBkiJ pic.twitter.com/4srSheSdUa

— Bank of England (@bankofengland) September 23, 2022

Additionally, as per Mirror UK, as of the next week, old bills featuring the face of Adam Smith, Matthew Boulton, and James Watt will no longer be accepted as legal tender.

Their replacements will have pictures of J. M. W. Turner and Alan Turing on £20 and £50 notes, respectively.

Bloomberg reports that the paper currency can be exchanged for new money made of a polymer by showing up in person at the BOE’s Threadneedle Street offices in London, mailing them through the post, or exchanging them at specific Post Offices. They can also be deposited into accounts at several commercial banks.

The decision to transition to polymer notes was made to increase the notes’ resistance to damage and fight illegal counterfeiting.

In future, to enable the distribution of notes carrying the image of King Charles and to gradually phase out notes bearing the image of the late Queen, the synthetic notes will also be replaced.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent