Is your bank note fake? How to spot fake polymer banknotes Brighton News

The note will join the Sir Winston Churchill £ 5, the Jane Austen £ 10 and the JMW Turner £ 20, meaning all Bank of England banknotes will be available in polymer.

Ultimately, the main goal of new polymer banknotes is to reduce the risk of counterfeiting.

They also last longer.

Alan Turing’s new £ 50 banknote to release in June – his birthday

In 2015, around 243,000 counterfeit Bank of England banknotes were withdrawn from circulation with a face value of five million pounds.

According to the Bank of England, the new polymer banknotes are designed to incorporate a number of new security features that will make them much more difficult to replicate.

Counterfeiters won’t be able to get their hands on the polymeric substrate used in the actual notes, which means they’ll have to produce a replacement material.

There are easy ways to tell if a paper or polymer banknote is real or fake.

We go over the things to look for:

1. Change of hologram

When the note is tilted from side to side, the hologram at the bottom should alternate the words “Five / Ten / Twenty / Fifty” and “Pounds”.

2. Transparent windows

There are two of them – one located about a third of the length of the note, the other in the lower corner.

The main window should have a blue and gold foil image on the front, and it should be silver on the back.

3. Queen in the window

The Queen’s portrait should be visible in the main window, with “Bank of England” printed twice around the perimeter.

4. Aluminum crown

A silver foil patch with a 3D image of the coronation crown is located above the transparent window on the front.

5. Purple patch

Directly behind the silver crown, on the back of the note, should be a round purple stain with the letter T in it.

6. Relief printing

The words Bank of England are embossed on the front of the note.

7. The fine print

There should be no smudging on the note and if you use a magnifying glass you will see its value in lowercase letters and numbers under the queen’s head.

8. Ultraviolet 20

Under UV light, the number is visible in bright red and green on the front, on the words Bank of England.