5 ms·

Cool design + polymer, but they should probably just abolish the £50 already. Very few places accept them. Never mind the £100 notes you can get in some parts

Cool design + polymer, but they should probably just abolish the £50 already. Very few places accept them. Never mind the £100 notes you can get in some parts of the UK. I would say they should encourage better acceptance of these denominations, but cash seems to be dying in general. I look to Switzerland with envy, where as far as I can tell you can stroll into the supermarket and drop a 1000-franc note without issue.

Symbiote 6y ago
Many places in London accept them (tourists often bring them, and higher prices make them more useful). With a new, secure design, I expect many more places will start.
- carmen_sandiego 6y ago
  That's true, the one place I see them most often is being smuggled out of China. Actually I have gotten them from cash machines in Covent Garden before as well. Since then I've wondered what criteria they use to pick denominations for each area.
  - paublyrne 6y ago
    I would assume the criteria is what mixture of denominations will require the least regular servicing. An area where the average daily withdrawal is high - ie a wealthy area - will run out more quickly if it's giving out small denominations, but in an area where smaller amounts will quickly be unable to provide the requested amounts if they're serviced with mostly higher ones.
  - Symbiote 6y ago
    It's probably difficult to find something to buy for £5 around Covent Garden, and no problem to spend £50. I'd much prefer some £50 notes than an empty cash machine. There's also a high cash demand from tourists, and a high nighttime demand (when machines won't be refilled). > smuggled out of China That's unfair: completely honest tourists often have £50 notes, regardless of where they come from. The currency exchange office prefers high-ish denominations of most currencies. They take up less space, which matters when everything has to fit in a safe, and are generally in better condition.
    - carmen_sandiego 6y ago
      Sorry, when I say "smuggled out of China", I don't mean it was illicitly gained cash or anything. China doesn't allow the export of currency above a certain (pretty restrictive) amount, so people sneak it out. I don't agree with that rule and it's not illegal to import that money to the UK, so I didn't intend any negative meaning with my comment. But since it is illegal in China, I think smuggling is the right term. Anyway, the relevance to our conversation: since value density is highest with £50 notes, that's what they tend to bring.
- globular-toast 6y ago
  Giving tourists very high value notes to spend is a brilliant trick.
dan-robertson 6y ago
The problem was that £50 notes were most likely forged, I think, although I don’t know how true that was. So the solution surely isn’t to get rid of the notes as that just shifts the forgery to the next note down. Surely instead the solution would be higher valued notes being created. But: - I don’t really think the problem is forgery. I think it’s that it is annoying for a lot of shops to make change for £50. - I don’t think the government is particularly interested in making cash more convenient for people (card transactions are easier to track) and wealthy people mostly aren’t interested in carrying around high-value notes as credit cards exist.
- hnlmorg 6y ago
  In my experience most places were hesitant because they didn't have the change in the cash register. Anywhere busy with a full register accepted £50 notes happily. edit: to add to that, it used to be that £1 coins were the most forged in sterling cash. I can't say if that's still the case, but at one point it felt like 1 in 3 pound coins were a fake.
  - varispeed 6y ago
    It's also that people don't care much about coins. When I used cash more back in the day, I remember going through my change from time to time and I had coins from all over the world passing as pence coins.
  - RobertKerans 6y ago
    Yep, my experience as well. I worked in a busy club all through university, and we never had an issue accepting £50 notes, but at the quiet bar I sometimes worked at we were sometimes hesitant to accept them as it tended to wipe out the float. Minor, and probably specific to busy bars, but it did come up: there's also the practical issue of where you put a £50 note as there's no space for it in a register. So you kinda shove them at the bottom of another stack, but there's the danger that when you're very busy and handing change back you'd grab it without looking. So always had to tell another staff member there was a £50 in the register, and ideally that register got emptied asap.
  - 6y ago
lifeisstillgood 6y ago
Sadly they will become acceptable most places soon - inflation will take care of that. I remember bars refusing to take twenty's as the night wore on. Now you can barely get a round out of a twenty.
- midasuni 6y ago
  £20 in 2020 was £10 in 1994 - 26 years ago. £20 in 1994 was £10 in 1981 - 13 years before. £20 in 1981 was £10 in 1975 Before that 1969 and 1950 So that’s doubling in 19,6,6,13,26 So inflation is at long time record lows despite the last period including the 08 crash and covid
  - albertgoeswoof 6y ago
    Excluding housing and university fees, because that’s magic money
    - dkdbejwi383 6y ago
      I thought we chopped down all the magic money trees?
      - mhh__ 6y ago
        The magic money tree only applies if you are buddies with members of the cabinet, silly. https://sophieehill.shinyapps.io/my-little-crony/ https://sophieehill.shinyapps.io/my-little-crony/
    - midasuni 6y ago
      Fees were a problem back in 1999 but they creased to be an issue in 2005 when they were added to income contingent repayments. Other tax rates or indeed disposable income isn’t included in that measure CPIH figure includes houses, under that £20 today was £10 in 1990, so even lower.
  - lifeisstillgood 6y ago
    I am not sure about this. I know there is a lot of controversy over inflation measures (mostly the basket of goods used, impact of tech in holding down the basket) I take a unscientific approach in that I had a bar menu from 1971 (my birth year) showing the prices in old and new money. A pint of Skol was 5 new pennies in 1971, and today you can find an equivalent pint of lager at about 5 pounds. So that's 100 fold increase in my lifetime. A lot of that came out of the 70's and early 80s but current inflation does, anecdotally, seem higher than 1-2% a year.
raverbashing 6y ago
I have to agree that I like being able to pay with cards, however I think paper (or, well, plastic) money still has it place.
nickik 6y ago
People look at you funny if you have a CHF1000 note. But most shops will accept them fine.
neilwilson 6y ago
Sheep farmers in the hills of Northumberland trades flocks with rolls of £50 notes. Very difficult to get contactless working in the midst of the Cheviots.
dblooman 6y ago
>Very few places accept them I have heard this since I was a kid, in reality, it isn't true, at least not in London. I have never been refused when presenting a £50, not that I have carried them more than a dozen times. Most places that have issues taking them are small merchants who give away too many notes breaking them, so will often ask for a smaller note. When I was in New York once, I went into a CVS and bought $60 of sweets to bring home, the cashier shouted 'bill check' when i presented a $100 bill, so I guess I look more dodgey in the US.
- gambiting 6y ago
  Well, I had the opposite experience here in the North East - when my dad came over to visit he had a bunch of £50 notes he got from the cash exchange office and we literally couldn't spend them. He wanted to buy some jewlery for my mum and the store wouldn't take his notes. Few other places around the town wouldn't either. We literally ended up going to the branch of my bank and changing them for £20 notes and suddenly it wasn't a problem anymore. It's just dumb. UK government should definitely drive a larger adoption of the £50 notes, it's so bizzaire to me that the British population treats their own banknotes like something from the moon.
  - dcminter 6y ago
    I don't agree that it's dumb - at least not from the government's point of view. High denomination bank notes are very useful for tax evasion. What's in it for them?
    - gambiting 6y ago
      >>High denomination bank notes are very useful for tax evasion How so? And if this is an actual, real problem...then stop printing them? What's the point of making currency that normal citizens have issues using? I just don't undestand it on some fundamental level. Where I'm from(Poland)_200PLN(about £40) notes are very common in circulation, and if you were to pay for a 5PLN loaf of bread with a 200PLN banknote I can guarantee literally no one would bat an eyelid. It's a common and completely normal banknote to use. Yet in UK, where people make more money on average and also buy more expensive things, the £50 is some alien piece of paper that most Brits have never even seen. The only other place which treats its own currency with such disdain is Germany where I saw signs on petrol stations sayng they don't accept 500 Euro notes. Well if you don't, then why even have them? What's the point? The government should be going after all retailers who don't accept any official currency, because that seems like the very basis of working currency system.
smoe 6y ago
1000 CHF bill are not really practical in Switzerland. Can’t remember seeing them as an option on many atms. And the only shops that will accept them are those where purchases are regularly in the several hundred francs range. But even in the large supermarket chains they might ask you to go change the bill at the nearest bank or postal office first if you try the buy a pack of chewing gum with it.

Symbiote 6y ago

Many places in London accept them (tourists often bring them, and higher prices make them more useful). With a new, secure design, I expect many more places will start.

carmen_sandiego 6y ago
That's true, the one place I see them most often is being smuggled out of China. Actually I have gotten them from cash machines in Covent Garden before as well. Since then I've wondered what criteria they use to pick denominations for each area.
- paublyrne 6y ago
  I would assume the criteria is what mixture of denominations will require the least regular servicing. An area where the average daily withdrawal is high - ie a wealthy area - will run out more quickly if it's giving out small denominations, but in an area where smaller amounts will quickly be unable to provide the requested amounts if they're serviced with mostly higher ones.
- Symbiote 6y ago
  It's probably difficult to find something to buy for £5 around Covent Garden, and no problem to spend £50. I'd much prefer some £50 notes than an empty cash machine. There's also a high cash demand from tourists, and a high nighttime demand (when machines won't be refilled). > smuggled out of China That's unfair: completely honest tourists often have £50 notes, regardless of where they come from. The currency exchange office prefers high-ish denominations of most currencies. They take up less space, which matters when everything has to fit in a safe, and are generally in better condition.
  - carmen_sandiego 6y ago
    Sorry, when I say "smuggled out of China", I don't mean it was illicitly gained cash or anything. China doesn't allow the export of currency above a certain (pretty restrictive) amount, so people sneak it out. I don't agree with that rule and it's not illegal to import that money to the UK, so I didn't intend any negative meaning with my comment. But since it is illegal in China, I think smuggling is the right term. Anyway, the relevance to our conversation: since value density is highest with £50 notes, that's what they tend to bring.
globular-toast 6y ago
Giving tourists very high value notes to spend is a brilliant trick.

dan-robertson 6y ago

The problem was that £50 notes were most likely forged, I think, although I don’t know how true that was. So the solution surely isn’t to get rid of the notes as that just shifts the forgery to the next note down. Surely instead the solution would be higher valued notes being created. But: - I don’t really think the problem is forgery. I think it’s that it is annoying for a lot of shops to make change for £50. - I don’t think the government is particularly interested in making cash more convenient for people (card transactions are easier to track) and wealthy people mostly aren’t interested in carrying around high-value notes as credit cards exist.

hnlmorg 6y ago
In my experience most places were hesitant because they didn't have the change in the cash register. Anywhere busy with a full register accepted £50 notes happily. edit: to add to that, it used to be that £1 coins were the most forged in sterling cash. I can't say if that's still the case, but at one point it felt like 1 in 3 pound coins were a fake.
- varispeed 6y ago
  It's also that people don't care much about coins. When I used cash more back in the day, I remember going through my change from time to time and I had coins from all over the world passing as pence coins.
- RobertKerans 6y ago
  Yep, my experience as well. I worked in a busy club all through university, and we never had an issue accepting £50 notes, but at the quiet bar I sometimes worked at we were sometimes hesitant to accept them as it tended to wipe out the float. Minor, and probably specific to busy bars, but it did come up: there's also the practical issue of where you put a £50 note as there's no space for it in a register. So you kinda shove them at the bottom of another stack, but there's the danger that when you're very busy and handing change back you'd grab it without looking. So always had to tell another staff member there was a £50 in the register, and ideally that register got emptied asap.
- 6y ago

lifeisstillgood 6y ago

Sadly they will become acceptable most places soon - inflation will take care of that. I remember bars refusing to take twenty's as the night wore on. Now you can barely get a round out of a twenty.

midasuni 6y ago
£20 in 2020 was £10 in 1994 - 26 years ago. £20 in 1994 was £10 in 1981 - 13 years before. £20 in 1981 was £10 in 1975 Before that 1969 and 1950 So that’s doubling in 19,6,6,13,26 So inflation is at long time record lows despite the last period including the 08 crash and covid
- albertgoeswoof 6y ago
  Excluding housing and university fees, because that’s magic money
  - dkdbejwi383 6y ago
    I thought we chopped down all the magic money trees?
    - mhh__ 6y ago
      The magic money tree only applies if you are buddies with members of the cabinet, silly. https://sophieehill.shinyapps.io/my-little-crony/ https://sophieehill.shinyapps.io/my-little-crony/
  - midasuni 6y ago
    Fees were a problem back in 1999 but they creased to be an issue in 2005 when they were added to income contingent repayments. Other tax rates or indeed disposable income isn’t included in that measure CPIH figure includes houses, under that £20 today was £10 in 1990, so even lower.
- lifeisstillgood 6y ago
  I am not sure about this. I know there is a lot of controversy over inflation measures (mostly the basket of goods used, impact of tech in holding down the basket) I take a unscientific approach in that I had a bar menu from 1971 (my birth year) showing the prices in old and new money. A pint of Skol was 5 new pennies in 1971, and today you can find an equivalent pint of lager at about 5 pounds. So that's 100 fold increase in my lifetime. A lot of that came out of the 70's and early 80s but current inflation does, anecdotally, seem higher than 1-2% a year.

raverbashing 6y ago

I have to agree that I like being able to pay with cards, however I think paper (or, well, plastic) money still has it place.

nickik 6y ago

People look at you funny if you have a CHF1000 note. But most shops will accept them fine.

neilwilson 6y ago

Sheep farmers in the hills of Northumberland trades flocks with rolls of £50 notes. Very difficult to get contactless working in the midst of the Cheviots.

dblooman 6y ago

>Very few places accept them I have heard this since I was a kid, in reality, it isn't true, at least not in London. I have never been refused when presenting a £50, not that I have carried them more than a dozen times. Most places that have issues taking them are small merchants who give away too many notes breaking them, so will often ask for a smaller note. When I was in New York once, I went into a CVS and bought $60 of sweets to bring home, the cashier shouted 'bill check' when i presented a $100 bill, so I guess I look more dodgey in the US.

gambiting 6y ago
Well, I had the opposite experience here in the North East - when my dad came over to visit he had a bunch of £50 notes he got from the cash exchange office and we literally couldn't spend them. He wanted to buy some jewlery for my mum and the store wouldn't take his notes. Few other places around the town wouldn't either. We literally ended up going to the branch of my bank and changing them for £20 notes and suddenly it wasn't a problem anymore. It's just dumb. UK government should definitely drive a larger adoption of the £50 notes, it's so bizzaire to me that the British population treats their own banknotes like something from the moon.
- dcminter 6y ago
  I don't agree that it's dumb - at least not from the government's point of view. High denomination bank notes are very useful for tax evasion. What's in it for them?
  - gambiting 6y ago
    >>High denomination bank notes are very useful for tax evasion How so? And if this is an actual, real problem...then stop printing them? What's the point of making currency that normal citizens have issues using? I just don't undestand it on some fundamental level. Where I'm from(Poland)_200PLN(about £40) notes are very common in circulation, and if you were to pay for a 5PLN loaf of bread with a 200PLN banknote I can guarantee literally no one would bat an eyelid. It's a common and completely normal banknote to use. Yet in UK, where people make more money on average and also buy more expensive things, the £50 is some alien piece of paper that most Brits have never even seen. The only other place which treats its own currency with such disdain is Germany where I saw signs on petrol stations sayng they don't accept 500 Euro notes. Well if you don't, then why even have them? What's the point? The government should be going after all retailers who don't accept any official currency, because that seems like the very basis of working currency system.

smoe 6y ago

1000 CHF bill are not really practical in Switzerland. Can’t remember seeing them as an option on many atms. And the only shops that will accept them are those where purchases are regularly in the several hundred francs range. But even in the large supermarket chains they might ask you to go change the bill at the nearest bank or postal office first if you try the buy a pack of chewing gum with it.