UK text-heavy 50 pence and 2 pound designs

[andyg]

They can still be found - but it takes a little patience   

[Figleaf]

It's been years since I was last in the UK, but my trick was to feed the highest denomination banknote accepted into a London underground ticket machine. You'd get change in coins only, practically all higher denomination coins, which is where the circulating commemoratives are. However, the last two times I was in London, it became progressively more difficult to pay with cash, so maybe this trick doesn't work any more.

Peter

[FosseWay]

It's been ages since I've been in the UK either, but I suspect a better way of achieving the same thing these days is to feed a £20 note into a self-service checkout in a supermarket. The same principle applies, that you will generally get high denomination coins out, and IME often £2 coins in preference to £5 notes.