The more surprising thing is that they are making a new £50 note at all. I haven't seen one in a very long time and many shops don't even accept them any more.
That's interesting. In Germany I might get a strange look if I pay for my coffee with a 50€ bill but it's usually accepted unless they actually don't have enough change. It's certainly no problem at a supermarket, even paid with 100€ bill a few times (because there is this stupid ATM near my workplace that doesn't ask which bills I want and just gives me 100 if I chose that amount and I forget almost every time). Judging from other comments here it seems outside London you really have trouble paying with that 50£ bill. I have seen one supermarket had a sign up saying they don't accept 200€ bills so far.
I'm curious about other countries now because I never really gave that a thought. I was surprised though when I was in China for the first time and learned the largest one is 100rmb which was around 10€ at that point. It's now more like 15€ and China is rapidly changing to a completely cashless society anyways but it was really weird back then; since using the ATM included a fee, you would get like 4000 bucks at once (depending on how long you stayed) and run around with 40 bills in your pocket.
I find travelling to Germany a nightmare for cash.
In the U.K. it’s almost at the point of being cashless - indeed I ate at a restaurant on Saturday night which didn’t accept cash.
In Germany it’s like going back to the UK in the early 90s in that regard. Charges to withdraw money from ATMs, the newly built canteen at the office of a large experiment doesn’t accept card, but also wouldn’t take a €50, which was also what the ATM gave me!
I live in Germany and the problem is, people (cashiers) still haven't understood that they don't have to pay a minimum fixed amount (like €2) to the bank, like you have to do with Visa.
That's why shops require you purchase stuff for usually at least €10 or look at you weirdly if you want to pay by card for a €2 hamburger at McDonalds. Which of course makes no sense, because they have to pay a percentage, not a fixed amount.
It's frustrating.
(Paying a fixed amount to the bank was a thing in Germany like 10 or 20 years ago.)
In Spain is strange to pay with a bill of more than 50€ in regular places, maybe big super markets would accept them, but no in small shops (or I don't see them at least).
In a part of London with many tourists, I saw them used by people ahead of me in the queue daily. There are some cash machines somewhere in London that dispense them -- possibly in Canary Wharf, I forget.
Conversely, I don't think I've seen a cash machine with fivers.
