Everything You Need To Know About The New £5 Note

As you may have heard last week, the new crisp £5 note comes into circulation and you will slowly begin to see it in banks, shops and maybe even your own wallet. Here is everything you need to know about it:

It is actually going to be made from a different materiel than all the previous notes. Instead of paper it will be made from a kind of plastic called polymer, which will help keep the notes intact for as much as 5 years longer than if they were made from paper.

This is the main appeal of the new note: durability. There will be less chance of ruining your money by leaving a note in your jeans pocket before a wash. If you’ve ever had that happen (who hasn’t?) then I’m sure you’ll appreciate this.

But there are some other things you should know too:

•  It’s actually 15% smaller than the current £5 note
•  It will feature both The Queen and Winston Churchill on the rear of the note instead of Elizabeth Fry
•  Scottish banks will also be releasing their own new fivers in the next few weeks
•  The current £5 note will only be usable until May 2017. But don’t panic you will be able to exchange any old notes for the shiny new ones
•  For its anti-counterfeiting technique, it will feature a see through window
•  As they are made of polymer, at the end of their lives they can be recycled
•  440 million new five pound notes have been printed, which means they’re worth a total of £2.2 billion
•  They look like this:

It may actually take quite some time before you see one “in the wild” so to speak but it’s great that they’re going to be more durable and are recyclable. What do you think? Tweet us @MACFinancial and use the hashtag #newfiver

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