BRITS are holding onto over £28billion worth of out-of-date banknotes – but there is a way to exchange old coins and notes.
This includes 114 million paper £5 notes, 76 million £10 paper notes, 510 million £20 paper notes and 341 million £50 paper notes, according to an FOI request made by the BBC to the Bank of England (BoE).
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In addition to the paper notes, £109million of old pound coins have yet to be returned to the Royal Mint.
Paper fivers and tenners are no longer legal tender.
The old £20s and £50s will no longer be legal tender after September 2022.
The BoE is encouraging people to swap their old notes as soon as possible.
The Royal Mint introduced the new £1 to replace the “round pound” on 28 March 2017.
The “round pound” was replaced by a new twelve-sided pound coin designed to be harder to counterfeit.
The round £1 coin lost its legal tender status at midnight on 15 October 2017.
Paper notes were also replaced by polymer notes in an effort to reduce forgeries but shoppers said they felt slippery and “easier to lose than the old ones.”
All the currently issued Bank of England notes are now plastic.
To date approximately 1.59 billion coins have been returned but approximately 109 million are still in circulation.
The Royal Mint recommends that people consult with their bank directly to establish whether their old £1 coins are still accepted.
How to exchange old notes and coins
The Bank of England says it will honour withdrawn currency forever, so you will always be able to swap old notes for new notes, even when they’re no longer legal tender.
The easiest way to exchange notes is by depositing them with your UK bank account, if you have one.
But unlike the BoE, banks don’t legally have to keep accepting old money, so it’s worth checking with yours before you head to a branch.
The Post Office may also accept withdrawn notes as payment for goods and services, or as a deposit into any bank account you can access with them.
You can do this at any of the Post Office’s 11,500 branches as long as you’re a customer of one of 25 banks – see the box below for the full list – but you can’t exchange paper notes directly for polymer notes.
Use this handy tracker to find your nearest Post Office branch.
You can send your out-of-date fivers or tenners by post, and the BoE will pay your money into a bank account (normally within ten working days), by cheque or, if you live in the UK and your exchange is worth less than £50, in new banknotes.
You will need to complete this form and provide a copy of some photo ID.
You can also visit the Bank of England in person to make an exchange at its bank counter in London.
But the bank warns that waiting times can be over an hour. It is closed at the weekend and on bank holidays and you will need to bring proof of ID and proof of address.
The counter is located at the Bank of England, Threadneedle Street, London, EC2R 8AH and is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 4pm.
You may also be able to deposit old coins at your bank – but check before visiting.
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