Bank Of England New Polymer Notes: Withdraws £20 And £50 Paper Notes
The Bank of England made the decision to withdraw both the £20 and £50 paper notes from circulation within the country and beyond effective from Friday, September 30th, 2022.
Bank Of England New Polymer Notes
Only the Bank of England new polymer notes of £20 and £50 will henceforth be accepted. Therefore most banks in Nigeria will start accepting only the polymer notes earlier than the stated Bank of England’s date. For example, Zenith Bank of Nigeria will only accept the polymer notes effective from Monday, January 3rd, 2022.
Other Nigerian banks have set December 31 as the deadline for clients to deposit their £20 and £50 notes, after the replacement of Fifty Great Britain Pound (GBP) Sterling (£50) and twenty GBP (£20) notes with Bank of England new polymer notes.
The Bank of England in the United Kingdom had introduced a new polymer design of £50 notes into circulation on June 23, 2021, with a deadline of September 30, 2022, for the notes to be completely removed from circulation.
As a result, Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in Nigeria have informed customers via various circulars that the old notes will no longer be accepted by the end of the year.
With the switch of paper GBP denominations to polymer, the new note bears an image of physicist Alan Turing.
Similarly, old paper £20 with Adam Smith’s features and old paper £50 with Mathew Boulton’s and Engineer James Watt’s features will be accepted till September 30, 2022, as declared by the Bank of England.
There are around £9 billion worth of paper £20 notes in circulation and £15 billion worth of paper £50 notes. These are being replaced with new polymer £20 notes portraying J.M.W. Turner and polymer £50 notes featuring Alan Turing as they are returned to the Bank of England. The new polymer notes will be the only ones with legal tender status after September 30, 2022.
People with a UK bank account will be able to deposit withdrawn notes into their accounts after September 30, 2022. Some Post Offices may take withdrew notes as payment for products and services or as a deposit to a bank account that can be accessed through them.
All withdrawn notes will be exchanged by the Bank of England.
According to the Bank of England,
“In recent years, we have been transitioning our banknotes from paper to polymer since this makes them more difficult to counterfeit and means they are more durable,” Sarah John, the Bank of England’s Chief Cashier, stated ahead of the date. The polymer £20 portraying artist J.M.W. Turner and the polymer £50 featuring physicist Alan Turing are now widely available, and their paper counterparts are being phased out. As a result, we’d like to remind everyone that they have one year from today to spend their paper banknotes.”
