As usual, some Americans are basically lampooning this policy (although some complaints especially on data collection is legitimate and worthy of discussion), b

As usual, some Americans are basically lampooning this policy (although some complaints especially on data collection is legitimate and worthy of discussion), but as many pointed out the US Dollar is in the minority when it comes to perpetual acceptance. Whether perpetual acceptance or time-to-time demonetisation is the correct one is not in my ballpark, but it is common to demonetise old designs few years after the release of superseding designs. As for the English pounds specifically, this practice is dated back to medieval times (even before the incorporation of BoE), especially to control state-sponsored (or equivalent) counterfeiting (like Nazi Germany's Operation Bernhard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bernhard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bernhard) and to replace the monarch on the banknote. Scottish pounds are interesting though. While older designs ceased to be widely-accepted (I should note that they are never legal tender), all notes are still accepted for exchange (well until an authorised bank that printed your specific note, which currently are three*, became bankrupt). * These are the Bank of Scotland, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and Clydesdale Bank. Despite the names of the first two banks, none of those banks are currently owned by Scottish or British governments.