Say Goodbye To (Some Of) Your Money... Maybe.

Posted by CrazyDistortion Sub-Editor from Rhondda Cynon Taff - Published on 08/03/2010 at 18:08
2 comments » - Tagged as Topical, History, Culture

Do you own a twenty pound note? Look at it.

Do you see someone by the name of Sir Edward Elgar?

If so, use it soon, because you won't be able to purchase items with it after the thirtieth of June, though it's up to the banks if they agree to swap notes after this date.

Only twenty pound notes with the portrait of the Scottish economist Adam Smith will be legal tender, which has been printed since March 2007.

About 10 per cent of all £20 notes in circulation – equating to 150 million notes, worth £3 billion – are the old versions featuring the English composer. They were introduced in June 1999 along with a view of the west face of Worcester Cathedral, replacing the previous series of notes featuring Michael Faraday, the physicist, and before that William Shakespeare.

Do not fret, mind. And even if you weren't worrying, just stay unworried. After June the first the Bank of England promises to swap your old Tweny pound note (even if it dates back to the Second World War) with a new one.

So, what will become to those shunned notes with the portrait of the English composer? Well, they are to be sent to the official Government incinerators, where they are to be destroyed in flames. This is the place where they burn illigal tobacco seized by HM Revenue and Customs ot British ports. All this burning will create a small amount of thermoelectric power.

Nice.

• Tweet