Plastic notes to make money last longer

Plastic bank notes could start being issued within three years under plans being drawn up by the Bank of England.

It says polymer notes are cleaner, more secure and – because they last longer – £10m a year cheaper than the cotton paper currently used.

The proposals could see new-style £5 and £10 notes starting to replace paper currency for the first time in the Bank’s 300-year history. If produced, they would also be smaller, in line with other countries, with the £10 reducing in size to become slightly larger than euro notes.

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A consultation on the change will include events at shopping centres across the UK to allow members of the public to feel polymer bank notes and comment. Concerns about the notes being slippery and possibly sticking together, and that they would not fold as easily as paper, have already been raised by focus groups which the Bank has been holding since last summer.

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