
The next Bank of England £5, £10 and £20 banknotes will be printed on polymer - ohjeez
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/polymer/Pages/default.aspx
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switch007
> The Serious Fraud Office and the Australian Federal Police are conducting a
> joint investigation into the activities of the employees and agents of
> Securency International PTY Ltd and their alleged corrupt role in securing
> international polymer banknote contracts.

> The trial of Peter Chapman is currently on-going and began on 4 April 2016
> at Southwark Crown Court. Mr Chapman’s first court appearance was on 5 May
> 2015 at Westminster Magistrates Court. There he faced six charges under the
> Prevention of Corruption Act of allegedly making corrupt payments to an
> overseas official in order to secure contracts of polymer for his company,
> Securency. The alleged offences took place between 9 July 2007 and 18 March
> 2009. He has been remanded in custody.

[https://www.sfo.gov.uk/cases/innovia-securency-pty-
ltd/](https://www.sfo.gov.uk/cases/innovia-securency-pty-ltd/)

------
semi-extrinsic
Polymer banknotes were introduced in '88 by Australia, who switched completely
to polymer in '96\. Other (ex-)commonwealth nations have followed suit, so
it's not that surprising Britain is switching as well.

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
The question is will they be using the same Australian printer as many of the
other countries that have switched to polymer notes. Seems like a big single
point failure node at this point.

~~~
kuschku
I think the Eurozone uses a different polymer printer than Australia, so the
UK might just use the same as the rest of the EU.

~~~
Symbiote
The euro is printed on paper.

Romania is the only European country to use polymer notes.

~~~
kuschku
Not anymore, at all.

For 2 years now it’s been on polymer:
[https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/banknotes/europa/html/index.e...](https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/banknotes/europa/html/index.en.html)

~~~
davb
That's really interesting, I didn't know that. Does anyone know what the
timescale is for phasing out paper? I seen that the website mentions parallel
issuance for a period - in the last year I've visited Munich and Paris and
only come across paper.

I'm genuinely interested to see how the logistics of rolling out a new
material will work across such a large area with so many countries and banks
involved

~~~
kuschku
5€ bills were replaced several years ago, 10€ bills over the course of last
year, and now 20€ bills were replaced already.

The old 10€ bills stopped showing up in the change I got from stores by end of
2015, and around march 2016 the old 20€ bills stopped showing up.

Obviously, they’re still in use in several places.

And regarding the rollout: Most banks have had to accept dozens of possible
payment methods, for them one more type of bills is not an issue. Producing
the money is more of an issue, but the link I mentioned before has an article
about that, too.

~~~
Symbiote
These new notes are paper. It says so on (1).

I don't live in the Eurozone, but I have a new and old €20, and the paper is
the same. I have an old €50, and a new €5, and the paper is the same.

Polymer notes almost always have transparent windows, and they feel like
plastic, not paper.

(1) [http://www.new-euro-banknotes.eu/Euro-
Banknotes/PRODUCTION](http://www.new-euro-banknotes.eu/Euro-
Banknotes/PRODUCTION)

~~~
kuschku
The €20 note has a transparent window, and feels like plastic.

Are you sure you have actually gotten one of the new €20 notes?

~~~
Symbiote
Do you have one? The window is only in the security strip, and it's clear on
the reverse where the window has been cut out from the paper. The plastic is
applied somehow to one side of the note.

Polymer notes like those I've used from New Zealand and Vietnam have the whole
thing made from plastic, and no paper at all. Example:
[http://banknote.ws/COLLECTION/countries/ASI/VIE/VIE0124.htm](http://banknote.ws/COLLECTION/countries/ASI/VIE/VIE0124.htm)

See, for example, [http://www.reuters.com/article/us-euro-fakes-
idUSBREA0C0JQ20...](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-euro-fakes-
idUSBREA0C0JQ20140113) I can find no mention anywhere of polymer Euros.

~~~
kuschku
As far as I know they’re a cotton-nylon base with plastic coating on top, in
contrast to the previous cotton-paper base without coating.

That counts as plastic money, IMO.

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tombrossman
Slightly off-topic but did anyone else find it amusing that the Bank of
England website does not support HTTPS? I think that's the first bank website
I've ever seen that uses HTTP only.

~~~
chrisseaton
It's all just policy information on there. It's not online banking. It'd be
nice if all sites were available on HTTPS, but it's not unusual or funny.

~~~
tombrossman
There are many reasons to switch to HTTPS - protecting financial data in
transit is just one of them. Here's an overview with further explanations but
many similar examples exist: [https://snyk.io/blog/10-reasons-to-use-
https/](https://snyk.io/blog/10-reasons-to-use-https/)

~~~
chrisseaton
Yes, amazingly I understand that. But it's not any more surprising or funny
that the Bank of England would be on HTTP compared to any other policy website
which still isn't on HTTPS.

~~~
tombrossman
Okay, fair point. Perhaps I did not explain myself thoroughly.

When I see bank + policy + not just some random bank but the BANK OF ENGLAND,
I do expect to see HTTPS guaranteeing the integrity of what is unquestionably
important and influential data being served to decision makers.

This amused me, but maybe I'm just easily amused.

------
jonahrd
I like the Canadian plastic money. The only complaint is that when working
retail you have to deal with people who fold their bills ot put them in a
small wallet, and the bills are so much harder to unfold than paper making
them difficult to count.

~~~
adiabatty
I swapped some bills with a Canadian friend when he came to visit. They're
nice and space-agey, but I couldn't feel the difference between them and the
receipts in my wallet. I'd miss the ability to distinguish between bills and
receipts by touch if we ever moved to plastic money.

~~~
davb
This raises an interesting point for visually impaired people. Sure, once you
separate the banknotes and other paper, UK notes can be differentiated by
their dimensions. But it might result in some confusion if similarly sized and
textured receipts get mixed in with the banknotes.

~~~
thedays
The next generation of polymer banknotes in Australia will have a tactile
feature to help visually impaired people - see [http://www.rba.gov.au/media-
releases/2015/mr-15-02.html](http://www.rba.gov.au/media-
releases/2015/mr-15-02.html)

These new tactile notes haven't been released publicly yet.

------
oblio
We've had them in Romania for about 15 years or so. They're just great.

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vegabook
a) be thankful that banknotes are not being withdrawn altogether, but...

b) mention of the 50 suspicious by its absence.

~~~
Symbiote
The £50 has only relatively recently been reissued, and presumably lasts a
long time in circulation.

There's an FAQ on the bank site, buried in a PDF, saying it will be considered
later.

~~~
vegabook
...more likely it is being considered for withdrawal from circulation
altogether for all the usual war-on-cash reasons. Indeed, in large amounts,
500 euro notes are already selling for 515 euros for reasons of moving money
outside of the banking system (demand very high in China), so as to avoid that
system's prying eyes, and also for reasons of negative interest rates becoming
the norm. The GBP 50 has the same bad reputation in _bien pensant_ policy
circles.

Anonymous, large-denomination notes have this amazing attribute that they are
_not_ easily controllable by politicians and central banks, the latter in
their quest for negative rates particularly stymied by them. By contrast
wealth in your bank account, or the dematerialized stocks and bonds that you
might own, can be switched off completely with a few SQL queries, on demand.

~~~
Symbiote
€500 is worth £390, not really comparable.

£50 is worth less than $100, so I doubt it's of much interest to international
criminals.

With inflation, it's useful in Britain, though difficult to get as only a
couple of cash points in Canary Wharf dispense it.

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Aelinsaar
Is the US likely to follow suit?

~~~
microcolonel
Honestly I hope not, we have polymer notes in Canada and they tear horribly. I
have lost bills just pulling them out of my wallet, most tellers will not take
them unless you mend them first.

U.S. bills are excellent, and I would encourage them to continue printing them
as-is.

~~~
timthorn
The Bank of England has a very good reputation for reimbursing people with
damaged notes:
[http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/Pages/damaged_bankn...](http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/Pages/damaged_banknotes.aspx)

~~~
vermontdevil
US as well

[http://www.moneyfactory.gov/submitaclaim.html](http://www.moneyfactory.gov/submitaclaim.html)

