UK: Polymer £5 and £50 Banknotes Soon?

[Alan71]

Interestingly, each side of the note shows a sentence that starts with "I". There is Elizabeth's "I promise to pay the bearer on demand" etc., and Churchill's "I have nothing to offer but" etc.  It does make sense to differentiate between the Queen putting a promise on "her" money, and any other quotes. Actually the Jane Austen £10 designs that I have seen so far also use quotation marks - no idea whether that will be changed too ...

It's not the Queen making that statement... it represents the person making the payment doesn't it?  The bearer being the person presenting the bill. 

[Bimat]

If the quotation marks were present in the original proposed design, then questions will be asked why they were removed later...It's still a non issue but I do agree that they should have put it...

Aditya

[Alan71]

It's not the Queen making that statement... it represents the person making the payment doesn't it?  The bearer being the person presenting the bill.

Apparently I'm wrong.  It's the Bank of England making the statement:

"What is the Bank's "Promise to Pay"?
The words "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of five [five/ten/twenty/fifty] pounds" date from long ago when our notes represented deposits of gold. At that time, a member of the public could exchange one of our banknotes for gold to the same value. For example, a £5 note could be exchanged for five gold coins, called sovereigns. But the value of the pound has not been linked to gold for many years, so the meaning of the promise to pay has changed. Exchange into gold is no longer possible and Bank of England notes can only be exchanged for other Bank of England notes of the same face value. Public trust in the pound is now maintained by the operation of monetary policy, the objective of which is price stability."

The Queen has only appeared on banknotes since the 1960s (I think).

[chrisild]

Ah, then I was wrong too but it would indeed make some sense to differentiate between a statement that the banknote is a medium for, so to say - I promise - and the Churchill quote. Right, a minor issue, but something or somebody must have caused the modification ...

Christian

[Bimat]

Pride and Prejudiced towards beauty: Campaigners accuse Bank of England of 'airbrushing' Jane Austen to make the author look more attractive on the new £10 note

By Nick Enoch for MailOnline
PUBLISHED: 10:57 BST, 21 May 2017 | UPDATED: 11:35 BST, 21 May 2017

She's the novelist famous for Sense And Sensibility. And now Jane Austen's supporters are up in arms over a senseless act by the Bank of England.

Austen's face is soon to appear on a new £10 note - but campaigners have accused the Bank of 'airbrushing' the author's features to make her look prettier.

The polymer note, set to be unveiled in July on the 200th anniversary of the writer's death, depicts her with a slightly plump face, a lace bonnet and serene expression; it was painted after she died in 1817 at the age of 41.

However, her supporters reckon that the Bank should have used the more realistic sketch of Austen done by her sister Cassandra, while the novelist was still alive.

It shows her less full of face, the lips are thinner, and she has bags under eyes - not to mention a slight look of contempt.

Cassandra's artwork - on which the later one was based - is the only confirmed portrait of Austen made during her lifetime, and resides in the National Portrait Gallery.

'It's deeply ironic that the image chosen by the Bank of England isn't really her... It's an author publicity portrait after she died in which she's been given the Georgian equivalent of an airbrushing,' TV presenter and historian Lucy Worsley told the Sunday Times.

Austen's portrait will replace Charles Darwin on a new set of plastic, unrippable notes.

More than 35,000 people had signed a petition calling for the new £10 notes to feature a female face after Elizabeth Fry, the Quaker prison reformer, was replaced by Winston Churchill on £5 notes.

[...]

Source: Daily Mail

[Bimat]

I just like the way some people and Daily Mail keep finding new topics to outrage about.

Aditya

[Bimat]

The new £10 was officially unveiled today. It will go in circulation on September 14.

Aditya

[Alan71]

Not sure about the spots on the reverse side, right-hand side.  I hadn't noticed them on the £5 but they are there, but in yellow so stand out slightly less.  Guessing it's a security feature.  I like the note design though.

[Bimat]

Not sure about the spots on the reverse side, right-hand side.  I hadn't noticed them on the £5 but they are there, but in yellow so stand out slightly less.  Guessing it's a security feature.  I like the note design though.

Perhaps it's something written in Braille system? Just a guess...

Aditya

[chrisild]

Probably not Braille - the BoE calls it a "tactile feature". "On the front of the polymer £10 note (the side with raised print), there are two clusters of raised dots in the top left hand corner. This tactile feature helps blind and partially sighted people identify the value of the note. The polymer £20 will also have a tactile feature, but with a different pattern." (Source: http://www.thenewten.co.uk)

Christian

[Bimat]

Has anyone got the new £10 in change/from bank?

Aditya

[Alan71]

Yes, I got my first one from a cash machine yesterday.  Serial number starts CA.

[Bimat]

Bank of England has given the contract to print the next polymer note in the series (£20) to CCL Secure Ltd and De La Rue Plc. £20 note will be issued in 2020.

Aditya

[malj1]

I now have the five and ten. My scanner refused to copy them as it did earlier with the new Australian note issues however another program was used successfully.

The tactile feature on the ten which is repeated just shows in the scan.

[Alan71]

Polymer £50 note coming:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/oct/13/bank-of-england-to-print-plastic-50