Thursday 6 April 2017

Old £5 Pound Notes Must Be Spent In The Next Month Before It Becomes Worthless

£5 Pound

British shoppers have just one month to spend the 160 million old fivers which are still in circulation before they lose legal tender status, the Bank of England has warned.

“We are encouraging anyone who still has paper £5 notes to spend them over the next month,” the Bank of England said in a statement on Wednesday.

After 5 May, shops will no longer have to accept the old fivers, featuring prison reformer and philanthropist Elizabeth Fry, as payment or in change.

The Bank said more than 50 per cent of the old notes have already been returned to be destroyed, leaving around 160 million in circulation.

Some retailers might still accept them, but at their own discretion. High street banks can also refuse to exchange notes after the cut-off date.

The Bank will continue to exchange the old £5 notes indefinitely, as it would for any other bank note which no longer has legal tender status.

The new polymer banknotes, first issued in September last year featuring Sir Winston Churchill, fit in cash machines like paper ones, but are considerably more durable, cleaner and harder to counterfeit.

A spilled drink should have little effect on the new notes, which can be wiped clean and will even survive a standard laundry cycle with “minimal damage”, according to the Bank.

However, certain religious groups and animal activists expressed outrage last year after the Bank revealed that the notes were made with tallow – a substance derived from fat and used in candles and soaps.

A petition garnered more than 100,000 signatures and stated that the fact that the notes contain the tallow, “is unacceptable to millions of vegans & vegetarians, Hindus, Sikhs and Jains in the UK”.

The Bank, last month, said that it will not withdraw the £5 notes from circulation, but added that it would consult with the public on how future banknotes should be made.

Last week, the Bank said that the “only practical alternative” to animal-derived additives, for the production of its next £20, are those derived from palm oil - an ingredient which has been controversial for its contribution to deforestation.

The £20 polymer notes are due to enter circulation by 2020.


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