How do you feel about the UK's plastic banknotes?

[mozzer models]

 

Any how just wait until you have the transparent sections through the middle of the note!

 

 

UK £5 & £10 have this 

[Reorte]

Any how plastic notes are the way of the future. Aussie notes have so many security things built in it is next to impossible to forge.... on the other hand the old grey nurse of a $100 which all you needed was a good photo copier and a set of Derwent pencils!

The problem with a lot of anti-forgery mechanisms is that you don't need to be able to reproduce all of them, just enough for the person receiving the note to give it a pass. They were talking about a secret anti-forgery mechanism in the new pounds coins - fat lot of good that is if almost everyone receiving one can't use it to tell if the coin is genuine or not. I suppose it might be there to try to catch out someone depositing a lot in a bank.

[Karhedron]

And not popular with David Attenborough either....allegedly

 

People seem to be a bit more careful about dropping them in the ocean than most other forms of plastic.

[brack]

Apparently they shrink in a tumble dryer!!

Apparently they shrink in a tumble dryer!!

Yes, but because they're waterproof you don't have to dry them!

[Jonboy]

The only official statement I've seen is that the plastic ones will be out by 2020 but nothing more definite.

 

There's usually around nine months before withdrawn notes cease to be legal tender, and even after that, high street banks continue to exchange them for a about a year.

 

After that, you need to take them to the Bank of England for exchange, though if you have a shoebox-full, expect questions......

 

Even if the new type were released without warning next week, the old ones should still be OK by the time you come over.

 

 

John

We have found round here some of the high street banks won’t exchange them, they will only allow you to pay them into an account.I assume this is part of the same money laundering regulation interpretation that means some banks are now only accepting cash from the account holder or guardian (e.g. grandparents cannot pay into a grandchild’s savings account).

[Sir TophamHatt]

My dislike is not for the material as such, but the inferior handling quallties compared to the paper version.

I agree, but still quite like them.

 

It's people though. They screw the notes up, fold them, then get annoyed when they go all weird.

Going back to paper won't cure that problem (that happened with paper, but it wasn't as obvious). Getting a better purse/wallet and learning to put money in a little neater than stuffing it in any old way will.

 

 

 

I think that a big problem with acceptance of Scottish banknotes and Ulster banknotes in many parts of England (especially here in the south coast counties) is that very few of us know what the genuine Scottish and Ulster notes look like. I certainly wouldn't know a real note from a forgery, or even from a made-up item.

It's a bit of a moot point when the forger has used it though.

After that, whether it's real or not, it's being used as £10. It's only the end user that misses out.

 

For example, I opened a bag of 10ps once from the bank. It had an American quarter in it. I spent that as a 10p and it was accepted (I don't think they realised though). So that led me to think perhaps we should just accept quarters over here as 10p.

Much like the old shillings were accepted as 5p/10p for a while.

 

 

Still makes me giggle when I see people rubbing one note for a good 10/15 seconds, that is clearly one note, just to make sure it's one note!

Edited May 5, 2018 by Sir TophamHatt

[kevinlms]

I think that a big problem with acceptance of Scottish banknotes and Ulster banknotes in many parts of England (especially here in the south coast counties) is that very few of us know what the genuine Scottish and Ulster notes look like. I certainly wouldn't know a real note from a forgery, or even from a made-up item.

 

Surely the fact that Scottish & Irish notes are hard to get accepted at the best of times, make them less likely to be forged? The fact that a planned recipient is likely to examine it closely, while umming & erring about it and probably declining it, makes the forgers best efforts pointless. Much better to forge a common note, that people will take, without looking too closely at it.

[big jim]

When I lived in Cumbria Scottish notes weren't a problem and all the businesses were happy to take them (not surprising given the proximity to Scotland) but even in Cumbria if you tried using an Ulster note you got a lot of umm'ing and aah'ing and talking to supervisors. I find in the South that big national stores will generally take these other notes but many smaller businesses will ask you for English notes.

Having a caravan in silloth there’s nowt worse than on the last day of your break getting Scottish notes in your change or from the cash machine as you know it’s going to be fun trying to spend them back down south without getting funny looks!

 

Regards the o/p saying about ‘smelly’ notes I’ve not experienced that but the factory in Wigton that makes them can smell spectacularly bad at times, even smell it in silloth (10 miles away as the crow flies) if the wind is blowing in the wrong direction

[Horsetan]

It doesn't really matter to me whether notes are paper or plastic. What matters is that they are acceptable in payment.

 

Also, it seems that, when depositing notes via ATMs, some machines have just as much trouble with plastic notes as they do with paper ones (hello NatWest! I'm talking about your ATMs!!)