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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Christopher Harper & Dayna McAlpine

£20 and £50 note warning as Brits urged to spend money before deadline

If you are lucky enough to have any paper £20 or £50 notes lying around or stashed in a piggy bank, a warning has been issued to spend them before they lose their legal tender status later this summer.

People in the UK have been told to swap or spend their old £20 and £50 Bank of England notes before the deadline later this year - the older notes will lose their legal tender status on September 30 2022.

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That means any businesses or people with notes should aim to get them swapped before the deadline, reports BirminghamLive.

The new polymer £20 was first issued on February 20 2020, and the polymer £50 note was first issued on June 23 2021. Once the September 30 deadline has passed, people will no longer be able to spend Bank of England paper notes in shops, or use them to pay businesses.

The Bank of England’s chief cashier Sarah John said: “Over the past few years we have been changing our banknotes from paper to polymer, because these designs are more difficult to counterfeit, whilst also being more durable.

“A large number of these paper notes have now been returned to us, and replaced with the polymer £20 featuring the artist JMW Turner, and the polymer £50 featuring the scientist Alan Turing.

“However if members of the public still have any of these paper notes in their possession, they should deposit or spend them whilst they can.”

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