old english banknotes

Old English Banknotes

The notes on this site are from my collection of recently withdrawn from circulation paper Old English Banknotes.

No longer legal tender

All of the banknotes that are listed on this site are no longer legal tender. It may be possible to exchange them at a bank but this is at the discretion of the bank manager. They are on their final call from the Bank of England to be exchanged for the current plastic or ‘Polymer notes’ that the new English banknotes notes are often called.

The old notes have either been replaced by a coin, in the case of the one pound or replaced by the new, longer lasting Polymer notes.

These new plastic based notes were designed to give a much longer life than the paper notes that they replace. The plastic currency can withstand a machine wash and are much more resistant to tearing or wear from folding and handling. It is expected that the useful working life of the new notes will surpass that of the paper notes by at least 2.5 times.

With actual cash money notes playing a much lesser part in our lives and the individual notes getting less wear and tear these new Polymer notes will remain unchanged for many years.