The Bank of England proposes plastic banknotes – yay or nay?

The Bank of England’s (BOE) consulting on whether to move to plastic money; binning the paper currency that the Bank has been handing out for the 300 years it’s been going.

Of course, our current notes aren’t just made from paper – they’re mainly formed from cotton and linen fibre. However, they do tend to get tatty quickly, with the average fiver apparently only lasting a year.

This is part of the reason why the BOE is proposing to turn Britain plastic – just like in 20 other countries including Canada and Australia. If the BOE gets the go ahead we could see the first polymer notes in 2016, starting with the new Winston Churchill £5 note and soon followed by the Jane Austen £10 note.

Would you be comfortable with plastic banknotes?

So what’s the argument for plastic banknotes? I’ll leave it to Charlie Bean, the deputy governor of the BOE, to make the case:

‘Polymer banknotes are cleaner, more secure and more durable than paper notes. They are also cheaper and more environmentally friendly.’

Mr Bean (no, not that one) also added that ‘the Bank of England would print notes on polymer only if we were persuaded that the public would continue to have confidence in, and be comfortable with, our notes’.

For the past three years, BOE researchers have been looking at what the adoption of plastic notes in the UK would look like. It also plans to hold 50 public events in the next two months to see whether you’d be up for them. But we thought we’d also bring the debate to you on Which? Conversation. And before you make your mind up, let’s look a little closer at the pros and cons.

For and against plastic banknotes

The plastic notes will apparently cost 50% more to produce. However, since they’ll reportedly survive a spin in a washing machine, they’ll last 2.5 times longer. This could save the Bank £10m a year as it wouldn’t need to reprint as many replacement notes.

ATMs and vending machines will have to be upgraded, which will of course come at a cost. Yet, operators suggest that machines will be less likely to jam.

The BOE’s primary reason to move to plastic notes appears to be the extra security – this comes from the flexible plastic layers allowing for more sophisticated anti-counterfeiting techniques to be placed between them.

Still, there’s certainly something about our good old paper money that makes them nice to handle. When I lived in Australia, the plastic notes didn’t feel like real money. Although it was magical watching a crunched up 20 dollar note return to its original state, I still missed the easily-foldable British notes.

The BOE will make its final decision in December, so which side of the fence are you on – the frayed paper fiver or the flexible plastic fiver?

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