UK: Polymer £5 and £50 Banknotes Soon?

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De La Rue awarded contract to provide polymer substrate for the new Bank of England £50 note

04 Jun 2019

De La Rue has been awarded a contract to jointly supply polymer for the Bank of England's new £50 bank note.

The eight-year contract which sees the provision of the polymer substrate split between De La Rue and CCL, also includes future production of polymer for the current £5 and £10 banknotes.

Under these contracts the first call-off volume for production of the initial launch stock of £50 has been awarded 45% to De La Rue and 55% to CCL Secure Limited. The next call-off, which will cover the polymer £5 and £10, is expected to take place in 2020.

This award demonstrates further significant progress for De La Rue's Safeguard® product, building on the 2017 contract award for 25% of the new £20 launch polymer.

The Bank of England started a formal public procurement process in December 2018 for the supply of polymer substrate for the £5, £10 and £50. The final decision to award contracts to De La Rue and CCL Secure was taken by the Court of the Bank of England. Supply of polymer under the new contract will commence in 2020 and the composition of the next £50 will be the same as for the current £5, £10 and £20.

Martin Sutherland, Chief Executive of De La Rue, said:

"We are delighted to have been chosen by the Bank of England to supply polymer substrate for the new £50 notes and to have the opportunity to supply Safeguard® for future production of the £5 and £10. This new contract is an important strategic milestone as we continue to increase our share of the fast-growing polymer market.

"We have a long-standing relationship with the Bank of England designing and printing banknotes - and now supplying Polymer substrate, which we believe will continue to go from strength to strength in the future."

Source: De La Rue (Press Release)

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England's New Currency Is Harming The Climate - Report

Aug 21, 2019, 03:00am

Dave Keating

When the Bank of England introduced new polymer plastic banknotes to exist the existing paper currency in 2016, the government promised the new notes would not only be more durable and secure, but also better for the environment because they are more easily recyclable.

But a new study has put those claims in doubt. A side-by-side comparison of polymer versus paper bank notes by Evergreen Finance London, using data from the Bank of England and information on cash manufacture and usage the British Retail Consortium, has found that the new polymer five pound notes release 8.77kg of C02, almost three times more than previous paper notes. That, despite their longer lifespan, correlates to 2.76kg of extra C02 emissions over lifetime.

The Bank of England introduced £5 polymer banknotes in September 2016, and the paper £5 notes were withdrawn in May 2017. A polymer £10 banknote was introduced in September 2017, and the paper note was withdrawn in March 2018. A polymer £20 banknote will be introduced in 2020, followed by a £50 in 2021.


The analysis found that the new £10 notes release 8.77kg of CO2 compared to their cotton-paper predecessors' 2.92kg. For £5 notes, that's 4.97kg for polymer versus 1.8kg for paper.

The findings differ from the claims made by the Bank of England, which find the new notes to be less greenhouse-gas-intensive. But the bank's data is based on what it calls functional units - the circulation of 1,000 banknotes over 10 years - rather than the number actually used by an individual, their manufacture and the number of exchanges they go through.

Source: Forbes