£19bn in old UK banknotes and coins not cashed in!
£18.9bn worth of paper banknotes and round pounds remain in circulation, with over 113 million of these being £5 notes! Despite it being nearly five years since the paper £5 note lost its legal tender status*, it seems people are holding on them.
In fact, you might just have one in your pocket/wallet/down the back of the sofa right now!
Whilst the paper £10 and £5 notes have been withdrawn from circulation, the £20 and £50 paper banknotes will hold their legal tender status until 30 September 2022.
According to the Bank of England, 775 million paper banknotes remain in circulation:
- Paper £5 notes in circulation: 113 million
- Paper £10 notes in circulation: 73 million
- Paper £20 notes in circulation: 360 million
- Paper £50 notes in circulation: 209 million
That’s a lot of banknotes!
*Whilst the paper £5 and £20 notes are no longer legal tender, they will always be exchanged by the Bank of England for their face value.
There are also supposedly £105m of old round pound coins in circulation, according to the Royal Mint.
After more than 30 years in the nation’s pockets, the familiar round £1 coin was replaced with an all new, 12-sided £1 coin in 2017, in a bid to crack down on counterfeiting.
It lost its legal tender status at midnight on 15 October 2017 and the Royal Mint asked the public to return their round pounds as they phased in the new 12-sided coin.
However, out of 1.6 billion round pounds to be returned, about 1.45 million were counterfeits!
The UK’s 12-sided £1 coin is described by the Royal Mint as the ‘most secure in the world’, with a string of anti-counterfeiting details. Find out more about the security details of this coin here!
Round pounds can still be deposited at high street banks – but can no longer be spent in shops.
Have you held on to your round pounds or paper notes? Let us know in the comments below!
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International Women’s Day! Remarkable Women Celebrated on UK Coins…
International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.
To celebrate, we’re taking a closer look at just some of the incredible women who have been commemorated on our UK coins!
Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Platinum Jubilee in 2022, making her Britain’s longest reigning monarch and the fourth longest reigning monarch in worldwide history. During her reign, not only did the Queen appear on the obverse of every UK and British Isles coin issued, but she also featured on the reverse several commemorative coins, such as the first ever Royal 50p issued to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee.
The first coin issued since her sad passing in September 2022 was the Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Memorial 50p, which paid tribute to the much-loved monarch’s life and reign.
Mary Seacole
Nurse and ‘war hero’, Mary Seacole put herself at risk to care for sick and injured soldiers during the Crimean War.
From the age of 12, Seacole helped her mother, a nurse who specialised in traditional Jamaican medicine. Inspired by her mother and following the death of her husband, she focussed on caring for the sick. Her medical expertise was invaluable during the Crimean War, where, along with Thomas Day, she opened a ‘British Hotel’ near the battlefields. She devoted her time and resources to caring for sick and injured soldiers, even riding on horseback into the battlefields under fire to help men from both sides of the conflict.
The Mary Seacole £5 was issued in 2023 in collaboration with ‘The Mary Seacole Trust’ to pay tribute to her dedication to helping others.
The reverse design by Sandra Deiana is based on a genuine photograph of Seacole. The photograph was taken around 1870 and is now held at Winchester College.
Florence Nightingale
Named after the Italian city in which she was born in 1820, Florence Nightingale is famous for her work in the military hospitals during the Crimean War where she tended to wounded soldiers.
In 1860 she laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment of her nursing school at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London. Her book ‘Notes on Nursing’ proved to be influential in changing the way hospitals were run and the role of nurses within them.
Released in 2010 to commemorate 150 years of nursing, the Florence Nightingale £2 features a design by Gordon Summers of a nurse taking the pulse of a patient.
Dame Vera Lynn
Coined as the ‘Forces Sweetheart’, singer Dame Vera Lynn rose to fame in 1940 with her wartime songs, White Cliffs of Dover, and We’ll Meet Again. She spent time travelling the world, singing to soldiers who were fighting on front lines, risking her life to inspire others.
Sadly, in 2020, we received the news that Dame Vera Lynn had passed away, and in 2022, she was celebrated on a UK £2 coin. Her life and achievements touched so many lives, and the Queen even sent a private message of condolence to Dame Vera’s family.
The Dame Vera Lynn £2 features a portrait of the famous singer with her signature victory rolls hairstyle on the reverse along with the years of her life 1917-2020, the perfect tribute to one of the UK’s most inspirational women.
Mary Anning
Mary Anning was one of Britain’s greatest fossil hunters and her discoveries were some of the most important geological finds of all time.
Her discoveries of spectacular marine reptiles prompted the scientific community to begin further investigation into explanations for changes in the natural world.
In 2021, a 3-coin series was issued by The Royal Mint to commemorate Anning and her discoveries. These 50p coins, issued in collaboration with the Natural History Museum, feature designs of the Temnodontosaurus, Plesiosaurus and, Dimorphodon – all prehistoric giants discovered by Anning on the Jurassic Coast!
Mary Anning was a truly inspiring woman, who pushed for her passion, making important historic discoveries and changes as a result.
Rosalind Franklin
English chemist, Rosalind Franklin sits right at the very heart of the story of DNA. Her ground-breaking research and inspiring work ethic were central to the discovery of the helical structure of DNA, which was later publicised by Watson and Crick.
Tragically, at the age of just 37, Franklin passed away from ovarian cancer, robbing her of the same awards and recognitions that her colleagues received.
In 2020, to celebrate what would have been her 100th birthday, she also became the second scientist to be celebrated in The Royal Mint’s Innovation in Science series.
The reverse design of this coin, by David Knapton, features a depiction of her famous Photograph 51, which enabled her to discover the structure of DNA in her laboratory in Cambridge.
Ada Lovelace
Rosalind Franklin isn’t the only female to feature in the Innovation in Science series…
English mathematician and writer, Ada Lovelace, was commemorated on a UK £2 in 2023 – the 9th coin in the Innovation in Science series.
Lovelace worked closely with Charles Babbage on his Analytical Engine and saw limitless potential in the computer. She studied the technology meticulously and discovered there was much more to computers than just calculating mathematical equations. This lead to her being referred to as the first computer programmer. Charles Babbage himself even gave her the nickname ‘enchantress of numbers’.
The reverse design of the Ada Lovelace £2 by Osborne Ross takes inspiration from the original input cards used by Lovelace to programme the Analytical Engine, along with the inscription “a discoverer of the hidden realities of nature”. The quote is a self declared statement taken from a letter that Lovelace wrote to her mother.
Agatha Christie
After the end of the First World War, Christie published her first novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles. This incredibly popular story introduced readers to one of Christie’s most famous characters – Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.
Writing well into her later years, Christie wrote more than 70 detective novels as well as short fiction which have been adapted into films, television, and radio programmes. In 1971, she was made a Dame of the British Empire for her outstanding contribution to Literature.
In 2020, to mark 100 years since her first publication, The Royal Mint celebrated the world’s best-selling novelist with a £2 coin. The design, by David Lawrence, pays homage to Christie’s crime novels, with a piece of a jigsaw slotting into place and her signature at the bottom.
Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter truly was a woman ahead of her time. Not only was she an accomplished children’s author and illustrator, she was a passionate and knowledgeable farmer and conservationist – long before it became popular.
However, it’s fair to say her enchanting tales of countryside characters, including Peter Rabbit and Mrs. Tiggywinkle, skyrocketed her to stardom. And in 2016, Beatrix Potter’s life was commemorated on a series of 50p coins.
Between 2016 and 2020, The Royal Mint issued 15 50p coins celebrating beloved characters from some of Potter’s most famous works, but the very first coin in the series was dedicated to Beatrix Potter herself.
There really have been some incredible women celebrated on our UK coins, and this is just a small selection.
Is there an influential women you’d like to see on our coins in the future? Let us know in the comments below!
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Join the Change Checker UK CERTIFIED BU Subscription Service and receive new UK coins sent to your door without the hassle of placing orders on the day of release!
Don’t miss your chance to get ahead of the crowd and be one of the very first collectors to receive the latest UK new issue coins as soon as they’re released.
‘Forces Sweetheart’, Dame Vera Lynn, commemorated on UK £2 coin
In 2020, we received the sad news that Dame Vera Lynn had sadly passed away. The iconic wartime singer was famous for boosting the morale of British troops during WWII.
Coined as the ‘forces sweetheart’, her renditions of We’ll Meet Again, the White Cliffs of Dover and I’ll be Seeing You, became synonyms with wartime.
Dame Vera Lynn played such a key role during wartime that Buckingham Palace sent a private message of condolence to her family.
And in 2022, to commemorate her life and achievements, The Royal Mint commemorates her on a brand new £2 coin.
Designed by The Royal Mint, this £2 features a detailed portrait of Vera Lynn as she appeared during the height of her fame.
The popularity of her songs carried across generations. In 2020, when many of us were forced apart from one another, her famous song ‘We’ll Meet Again’ spoke to the nation once more, with a similar level of emotion as they did in 1940 – a testament to her charm, skill, and beautiful voice.
To add this stunning commemorative £2 coin to your collection today for JUST £9.50 (+p&p), simply click here >>
To learn more about other UK coins which have been issued to commemorate wartime, continue reading…
2020 Victory in Europe £2
2020 marked 75 years since Victory in Europe Day, commonly known as VE Day.
This monumental day signified the end of the Second World War in Europe and brought long-awaited peace following Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender of armed forces on the 8th May 1945.
To commemorate this pivotal moment and one of the most historically significant days in British history, a UK £2 coin was issued.
Dominique Evans‘ design features a woman holding a newspaper aloft in crowd of celebrating people, set against a backdrop of the word VICTORY.
The edge inscription reads ‘JUST TRIUMPH AND PROUD SORROW’ which is incredibly fitting for a coin which marks such a historic anniversary.
You can secure this coin for your collection for JUST £9.50 (+p&p) by clicking here >>
2019 D-Day £2
In 2019, The Royal Mint issued a £2 coin commemorating the 75th Anniversary of D-Day, the largest seaborne invasion in history.
The invasion took place on the 6th June 1944 and began the liberation of German occupied France and laid the foundations for the Allied Victory.
Initially issued as part of the 2019 Annual Coin Set, the D-Day £2 is favoured among collectors for its innovative design by Stephen Taylor.
The reverse features arrows pointing across the English Channel to Normandy; each arrow has one of the five code-names for the beaches where Allied Troops landed: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.
2005 St. Paul’s Cathedral £2
In 2005, The Royal Mint issued a second £2 in the new bi-metallic specifications to commemorate 60 years since the end of the war.
On 8th May 1945, Winston Churchill announced VE Day – Victory in Europe, which marked the end of World War Two.
Interestingly, the reverse design depicts St. Paul’s Cathedral. This is because the cathedral was one of only a few structures which survived the Blitz to become a great symbol of hope to a war-torn nation.
The edge inscription reads ‘IN VICTORY: MAGNANIMITY, IN PEACE: GOODWILL’ which is part of the famous maxim that prefaces Churchill’s history of the Second World War.
10,191,000 entered circulation. Have you found one in your change? Comment below!
Secure the 2022 UK Dame Vera Lynn £2 for your collection today!
