LONDON (CU)_The £50 note, which has been around for about 40 years, is not commonly used in the United Kingdom and does not have a great image. There is a perception that apart from tourists, these notes are only used by criminals or those looking to evade taxes. Shops are also reluctant to take them, mainly because they are worried about counterfeit notes.
However, as the new £50 note, featuring mathematician, computer pioneer and code breaker Alan Turing, goes into circulation on Wednesday (23 June), there is hope that the new look will give a better image to the note. The £50 note will join the Turner £20, the Austen £10 and the Churchill £5, all of which are printed on polymer instead of paper since the thin, flexible plastic material is expected to last longer and stay in better condition.
While many people rarely encountered a £50 note throughout all these years, this possibility has been narrowed down even further as a result of the pandemic which has triggered a slump in the use of cash. According to banking trade association UK Finance, payments using notes and coins fell by 35 per cent last year, as many people deliberately avoided the use of cash owing to COVID fears which made contactless payments popular.
Moreover, the launch of the new look for the £50 comes as a surprise to some of those who expected the note to be axed a few years ago. Back in 2016, Standard Chartered Bank Chief Executive Peter Sands published a paper in which he proposed the elimination of the high-denomination note. “Ask people in the UK when they last used a £50 note… and the most common answer is to pay a builder or plumber,’ he wrote. “The incentive is tax evasion, since payment in cash makes it easier for the individual to avoid VAT of 20%.”
While authorities have also admitted that there is a perception that the £50 note may be used for hidden criminal activity or tax evasion, however, they have committed to keeping them. And some experts claim that given the new security features and smaller design, we may see more people using them for payments in the near future.
