A new £ 50 polymer banknote will enter circulation later this year – but how do you know if it’s fake?
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.
In 2015, around 243,000 counterfeit Bank of England banknotes were withdrawn from circulation with a face value of five million pounds.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.
More about this article: Read More
Source: www.theargus.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-04-29 04:00:00