New £20 note enters circulation: Everything you need to know
The Bank of England’s new polymer £20 note enters circulation for the first time today.
The note, which was first unveiled in October, features British painter JMW Turner, will start appearing at ATMs and tills throughout the country today.
The BoE said it expects half of ATMS across Britain to be dispensing polymer £20 notes two weeks after its first issue.
Outgoing BoE governor Mark Carney will launch the note today at an event at Tate Britain.
“I am delighted that the work of arguably the single most influential British artist of all time will now appear on another 2 billion works of art – the new £20 notes that people can start using today,” Carney is expected to say.
Why do we have another new bank note?
The new polymer banknotes are designed to be harder to counterfeit than their paper predecessors, as well as longer-lasting and easier to clean.
The new £20 note is the first to incorporate two windows and a two-colour foil, and features Turner’s self-portrait as well as The Fighting Temeraire, one of his best-known paintings.
When does the old £20 note expire?
Paper £20 notes are still legal tender, and can continue to be used. There are currently over two billion £20 notes in circulation, and the Bank of England will give six months’ notice before their status as legal tender is withdrawn.
Who is on the other new bank notes?
Winston Churchill features on the current £5 note, which was the first polymer note to be unveiled in 2016. The polymer £10 note, featuring Jane Austen, entered circulation in 2017.
It was announced in July that mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing would appear on the new polymer £50 note, which is due to enter circulation by the end of 2021.
For the first time, members of the public will be able to bring the new £20 note to life using augmented reality. The Bank of England has partnered with Snapchat to develop a new lens that transforms the note into a live artwork if users hover over a special Snapcode.