British Banknotes: Are They Still Valid? Where do I change old money? Where are the Bank of England, and its Museum?

Bank of England museum. Photo by Adrian Pingstone in the Wikipedia article on the Bank of England Museum.

Problem
I've found an old £5 banknote in an old bag. British pound sterling.

How can you tell an old note?

Old and new Five pound notes - the back. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The old five pounds and ten pounds paper notes have HM the queen's head on the front. She is wearing her tiara.

You will see a vertical (up and down, north-south) silver line as if somebody has sewn a fine ribbon, the width of a flattened staple or a flattened paperclip.
The back of the old Five pounds has a picture of Elizabeth Fry, 1780-1815.

The New Five Pounds Note
 When I looked carefully at the new note, I started to admire it. The design is much more complicated and interesting than you might at first think.
The front has H M The Queen, above a pattern of the number five. To her left is a detailed drawing of the bank of England. You might spot some shields.

The transparent section contains a gold picture of the Big Ben clock tower. Above is a silver crown. Below is a horizontal lozenge with the word five. But as you shift your head the five changes to pounds.

Overlapping the see-through section is another, showing the queen's face again.

On the back, Elizabeth Fry has been replaced by a picture of Winston Churchill, which moves us from the 1800s to the 1900s.

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, army officer, and writer, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. 

Under Churchill's head there is a quotation: I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. His dates, the years only, are in teeny print up the side. Behind him is a tiny but detailed drawing of the houses of Parliament.

What a work of art! The five pound note really is worth five pounds, from the point of view of an artist.

Every time I look at it, I see something new. It's beautiful enough to frame. I'm tempted to ask for a nice crisp new five pound note from a bank - if I can find a bank. Then frame the note, and only get it out to use in an emergency.

What about the ten pounds?
The old Ten pounds shows Charles Darwin 1809-1882.
If you have some leftover notes from your last trip to England with these pictures on paper money, you can't spend them in shops nor change them at the post office.

Is it still valid? British banknotes say in small letters:

promise to pay the bearer on demand.

It is signed, in facsimile, by the Chief Cashier.

I shall have to go and demand some new notes.

But, why am I put to all this inconvenience? Why are they changing the money?

I suspected it was to cheat us out of our savings. First, they close down the banks. Then all the pensioners who don't use banks (because they can't manage computers and pin numbers) and keep their money under the pillow, or buried in the garden, find their life savings are worth nothing.

I went into Tesco, having forgotten all about it. But the sharp-eyed cashier hadn't forgotten. She wouldn't take the note. Luckily I had enough money to pay the bill.

Why are banknotes changing? Despite those little silver shiny lines in the old banknotes, they were still not good enough to prevent fake notes being printed.

The powers that be say it's because the fraudsters who print fake bank notes have got so sophisticated that better security has to be used.

Also the old paper money disintegrated, so new less destructible money is made. Presumably we won't be chucking our life savings in the bin, so the indestructible money won't end up in the stomachs of wildlife out in the ocean.

What does the new money look like? How do I know they have given me a valid new note?

The new notes are shiny like plastic. They have a see-through section which one presumes is harder to forge.

Some people save a note or two, in the hope that one day it will exceed the trade-in value at the Bank of England. If all those old notes are destroyed, to prevent people trying to con the unwitting into thinking they are still valid, then the rarity of the ones accidentally left out in old handbags and jacket pockets and found years later might one day be worth more.

If you were going to save one, you should have saved a nice clean one. Old notes get dirty and creased. Money is notorious for being passed from hand to hand and carrying germs. That's one reason for making the new, durable notes. Can you wipe them clean?

If inflation continues and rises, the new five pounds you get back will be worth less, buy you less, every year.

If you have the paper twenty pound note, in March 2018 it is still valid. The twenty pound note will be replaced, they say. So think about making sure that you trade them in when the time comes.

You have to go to the Bank Of England to change your old style money. If you are a tourist visiting the centre of London anyway, or a London-based UK pensioner with a free Freedom pass for free travel on public transport, you could combine your bank visit with another sightseeing experience.

The Bank of England has a museum. Free! No money needed.

What else is there to see nearby? There's The Monument, Guildhall, St Paul's Cathedral, The city, also called the Square mile. The Tower of London, Tower Bridge, technically in Tower Hamlets, are right alongside. The London Museum. Or just walk along The Thames photographing landmarks and plaques.

Where to change old money
Bank of England, Threadneedle Street,
London EC2R 8AH

Enquiries tel: +44 (0)20 3461.

Monday to Friday, but not weekends nor on bank holidays. Yes, the banks take holidays on bank holidays - that's why they are called bank holidays. When my family tried to return notes, the queue (line-up) was long and the bank of England closed at 4 pm.

Here are the official answers:
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes
The website also tells you about counterfeit notes.

BANK OF ENGLAND MUSEUM
Bartholemew Lane
London EC2R 8AH.

How do I remember the postcode - EC2 ar! 8 ah!
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/museum
https://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/place/611007-bank-of-england-museum

Wales has another in Llantrisant, South Wales, off the M4 in the direction of Cardiff:
It looks very interesting, with a car covered in coins. But it will cost you a lot of coins. £13.50 full price for adults, £11.50 for seniors and students with ID, £10.50 for children 5-15, and under fives free. You can buy tea there. They say allow 90 minutes for a visit. (I always take longer, what with reading every caption and browsing in the shop and stopping for tea. Unlike the Bank of England museum in London, the one in Wales is open at weekends. What do you get for your money? It does look a very big, busy, modern museum.
http://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/collection/index.html

Other collections are in national museums.

A roundup of money museums is here:
https://www.capitalgoldgroup.com/blog/numismatic-museums/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Numismatic_museums_in_the_United_Kingdom

Scotland has its own £1 Scottish pound note. The museum on the Mound in Edinburgh has a shop where you buy souvenirs sjch as key-rings and magnets containing shredded notes.
https://museumonthemound.com/gift-shop

TO VISIT ENGLAND AND THE UK
www.visitbritain.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my previous posts on The Guildhall and other sites in London and around the world. Please share links to your favourite posts.