Exchanging old notes 30 September 2022 is the last day you can use our paper £20 and £50 notes. After 30 September 2022, many banks will accept withdrawn notes as deposits from customers. The Post Office may also accept withdrawn notes as a deposit into any bank account you can access at the Post Office.

Since the Bank of England are yet to confirm when the old £20 notes expire, people will be given six months’ notice of its withdrawal. That means, even if they announce it tomorrow, you’ll still be able to use the old notes up until at least November 2021.

Even after the notes stop being legal tender, banknotes officially hold their face value “for all time”. So if you do find a paper £20 note stuffed down the back of the sofa after they’re withdrawn, you’ll be able to exchange it with the Bank of England in London, in person or by post (at your own risk).

We can only exchange old banknotes issued by the Bank of England.

HERE’s which banks allow customers to deposit old paper notes into their accounts at the Post Office:

• Allied Irish Bank (GB)
• Bank of Ireland.
• Bank of Scotland.
• Barclays.
• Cahoot.
• Cashplus.
• Clydesdale Bank.
• Co-op Bank.

While the paper £5 and £10 notes are no longer legal tender, they will always be accepted by the Bank of England. People can take or post any old notes to the bank in Threadneedle Street, in the City of London, to be exchanged for a new-style polymer one. Banknotes can also be exchanged by post.”

When do old £20 notes go out of circulation? The last day the old £20 note can be used is on 30 September 2022 – more than two years after the new polymer £20 note was first issued by the Bank of England. Old £50 notes will be withdrawn from circulation on the same day.

Serial Numbering The first two numbers of the prefix, which indicate the year the banknote was produced, are the same for all banknotes printed in the same year. All banknotes on a sheet will have the same suffix, which decreases by one from one sheet to the next.

A ten-shilling note can be exchanged at the Bank of England for 50p. Yet they are selling for between £2 and £5 each on eBay. So if you found a wad of 20, you could make £100.

Paper money issued between 1782 and 1866 by state banks is called obsolete money or defunct currency. All of these banknotes have been devalued and are no longer good at their face value, although many have gained substantial value to currency collectors around the world!

11 March 1988

And you can always exchange withdrawn notes with the Bank of England directly, so you shouldn’t ever lose money. You can exchange your old notes with the cashier in person at the central bank located on Threadneedle Street in London. You can also do it by post if you don’t live close or are overseas.

Yes, because in a shop you have not entered into a debt situation. In England and Wales*, £50 notes are legal tender, but legal tender has a narrow and specific definition. Legal tender must be accepted when debt has been incurred and the person who owes the debt offers payment in legal tender.

We accept £50 notes in ASDA, it’s just the self-scan machines that won’t take them.

The Bank of England £50 note is a banknote of the pound sterling. It is the highest denomination of banknote issued for public circulation by the Bank of England….Designs.

Alan Turing