Who doesn’t like money? And imagine the want for money multiplied when there is a new currency note itself. Great Britain’s biggest cash revolution in the past few decades has to be the oncoming polymer currency note which will change the way we handle physical cash.
The new £5 note is already in production
The note has already being put into production at England and Wales cash machines and their emergence will prove to be the biggest change in currency circulation in the history of Britainsince 1971.
The new £5 note features Sir Winston Churchill,can survive water and is also tear resistant.
The note is apparently made up of a thin flexible plastic i.e. polymer which will increase its shelf live by at least 2 to 5 years compared to the current £5 notes. This will result into a lot of savings at the macro level.
Shiny, lighter and a bit slippery as well
The shiny new £5 note is 125mm by 65mm in size and is said to be 15% smaller in size compared to the current £5 note. According to online reports The Bank of England has ordered over 440m of these new plastic £5 notes.
For now £5 notes will be put into circulation while £10 and £20 plastic notes will subsequently be launched soon. The new £10 note will have Jane Austen on it while the £20 will be out only in around 2020 so not many details are available about it.
With regards to the higher denomination of £50 notes, the bank is still undecided about the same.
The current fiver will be half exhausted by year end
The Bank of England according to reports have estimated that more than half of the current cotton paper notes will be exhausted latest by end of this year which will mark the complete replacement by the new fiver notes.
It is important to also note that the current £5 note will not be accepted as legal tender from May 2017 on wards. Also noteworthy is the fact that while the new fiver notes are durable they will shrink in size and melt on ironing at temperatures above 120 degrees.
We will have to wait and watch how the Brits will react to the new fiver in a few days that will follow its launch.
