From today, banknotes carrying a portrait of King Charles III will be issued for the first time, but with a move towards a cashless society, it may be some time before you see the note in person.
The portrait of the King will appear on all four banknotes (£5, £10, £20 and £50), but there are no other changes to the design of the notes.
The current series of the Bank of England notes has Winston Churchill on the back of £5, Jane Austen on the back of £10, JMW Turner on the back of £20 and most recently, Alan Turing on the back of £50.
But despite the launch, the new notes featuring the King will be slowly introduced to circulation. They will only be printed to replace worn ones and to meet any spike in demand.
In the meantime, banknotes bearing the late Queen Elizabeth II will remain legal tender and co-circulate alongside those bearing the King.
New face admits the cashless trend
Despite all of this, it may not be as quick as once before to see the new banknote as the cashless society that was pushed during the pandemic stems ahead.
Speaking to City A.M. Martyn Evans, CEO, financial services consultancy firm Altus Consulting explained: “We are on a downward trajectory in terms of use of cash and there is an inevitability about becoming a cashless society.”
Alison Conley, head of consumer at accounting firm MHA noted that “perhaps controversially, some retailers now refuse to accept cash at all.”
As the new banknotes are only being issued to replace worn notes or any demand for cash, that demand may not be there. “For a lot of people, it may be quite some time before they actually get to hold and spend one of the newly issued notes themselves,” Conley added.
But as Evans pointed out “it will take at least a generation for us to become truly cashless.”
Recently, the UK’s biggest high street banks pledged to identify nearly 200 new places for shared banking hubs and upgrade dozens of locations after calls from the Treasury to improve access to cash.
Amanda Hulme, head of financial services regulation at law firm TLT noted that the “access to cash rules create very extensive requirements on UK banks.”
She noted that the tests to identify where there is a shortage of cash access are perhaps not quite as extensive as customers would expect.
“Generally speaking, where bank branches close, this has attracted adverse publicity and concerns about access to banking services for some customers (elderly, vulnerable and small businesses),” she added.
King Charles III banknotes for collection
However, for those who don’t want to wait until they encounter one of the new notes, they can exchange it at the Bank of England.
Research commissioned by the Post Office found that over a quarter (28 per cent) said they want to get hold of one of the new banknotes.
In order to do that, from Wednesday until next Tuesday (11th), the public can exchange any Queen banknotes for the new King ones through the Bank of England, with a limit of £300 per person.
The Bank of England has supplied an application form for people wishing to exchange for the notes.
There is also a selection of Post Offices across the country that will stock the new currency today.