News

For Bank of England, pounds of plastic

December 19, 2013

The Bank of England will switch from cotton paper to plastic polymer for its next-issued 5 pound and 10 pound banknotes. The first polymer note will be the 5 pound note featuring Sir Winston Churchill to be issued in 2016, followed approximately one year later by a polymer 10 pound note featuring Jane Austen.

A news release from the Bank of England said that the decision follows a 3-year research program, which concluded that there were compelling reasons to move to printing on polymer. In particular, the research indicated that:

polymer banknotes are resistant to dirt and moisture so stay cleaner for longer than paper banknotes;
polymer banknotes incorporate advanced security features making them difficult to counterfeit;
polymer banknotes last at least 2.5 times longer than paper banknotes, which will improve the quality of banknotes in circulation;
polymer banknotes are more environmentally friendly than paper banknotes; and
because they last longer, polymer banknotes cost less over time than paper banknotes.

The bank announced in September that it would switch to polymer only if it were evident that the public would accept and place trust in "plastic" notes. A public consultation program revealed overwhelming support of the polymer note.

During the 2-month study, 13,000 individuals provided feedback: 87 percent favored polymer, 6 percent opposed it, and 7 percent were neutral. People who had the opportunity to see and handle polymer notes were 20 percent more likely to approve of the substrate than those who offered feedback online.

The bank said that it also engaged with a wide range of stakeholders in the cash industry in arriving at the decision for polymer, and that it would continue to work with the industry to ensure a smooth introduction of the first polymer note. The bank will host an Industry Forum in February 2014 to initiate this work.

The new polymer notes will be slightly smaller than their existing paper equivalents, but the current practice of note size increasing with note denomination will be maintained, the bank said. The smaller notes will be more convenient for everyday use and less expensive to print and store, the bank said.

Currently more than 25 countries use polymer notes. These include Australia, which introduced them in 1988, New Zealand, Mexico, Singapore, Canada and most recently Fiji and Mauritius, which both introduced polymer banknotes in 2013.

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