Paper £5 note set to be worthless very soon...
THERE are just a few weeks left to spend or swap your old £5 notes which will cease to be legal tender on May 5.
Amazingly, there were almost 165 million paper £5 notes still in use at the start of 2017.
The move to plastic fivers has been a dramatic and quick one with the Bank of England telling retailers to stop handing them out the paper version in change a week ago.
The final cut off is May 5. Some shops might still take them, but they will be well within their rights to refuse.
“Some retailers, banks and building societies may choose to accept paper £5 notes after the withdrawal date. However this is at the discretion of the individual institution,” the Bank of England said on Tuesday.
But there is a way to still get your money’s worth after that date.
Can you still spend paper £5 notes after 5 May 2017?
Maybe. In theory vending machines won’t take them and shops refuse them - but they don’t have to say no. It’s up to them.
High street banks can also refuse to exchange notes after the cut-off.
There’s one way to guarantee to get your old £5 note swapped – head to the Bank of England itself.
That phrase “I promise to pay the bearer on demand” is something that doesn’t have a time limit on it, the Bank said.
The Bank of England’s head office in London’s note exchange desk lets anyone with an out of date note swap it for a current one – meaning anyone with a fiver can head there and swap their paper fivers for polymer ones.
In fact, even if a note’s ripped, smashed or otherwise vandalised, as long as there’s enough left to identify what it was they will swap it for a new one.
You can also exchange them by posting them to the Bank.
The old fivers will be recycled using a composting treatment.
The new one pound coin is now coming into circulation.
And that means the old one is being phased out.
It might take a little while for people to start seeing the new £1 coins in their change as they gradually filter into general use.
The old “round pound”, which was introduced more than 30 years ago, will be in circulation alongside the new coin until it ceases to be legal tender on October 15.
£1 coins were first launched on April 21 1983 to replace £1 notes. The Royal Mint has produced more than two billion round pound coins since that time.
The production of the new coins follows concerns about round pounds being vulnerable to sophisticated counterfeiters.
Around one in every 30 £1 coins in people’s change in recent years has been fake.
The new coin has a gold-coloured outer ring and a silvercoloured inner ring. It is based on the design of the old 12-sided threepenny bit, which went out of circulation in 1971.
People have been urged to return the old round pounds before they lose their legal tender status.
They can either spend them, or bank them. Over 70 million £1 coins are thought to be stashed away in piggy banks, purses and jars.
Some of the round £1 coins returned by the public will be melted down and reused to make the new £1 coin.