The Bank Of England always demonitizes old design notes a short while
after the introduction of a new design, they can't be spent but bank's
will exchange them for newer notes.

Scottish notes don't get demoitized but after a while it may prove
difficult to spend a note of an old design, they can of course be
exchanged at a bank for newer notes. Billy


Bob Flaminio wrote:

stonej wrote:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4486173.stm

Great article. Quoting:


One pound notes ceased to be legal tender on 11 March, 1988, after which
they became a fiscal dodo bird. The reason for replacing them with those
coins made sense: the note, Treasury records show, were becoming
increasingly "inconvenient" for the public.

A pound note had a lifespan of just nine months, because, the records
say, it was often kept in a pocket instead of a wallet, stuffed in with
coins and keys and who knows what else. They stayed out of the banks
longer, too.

"This results in dirty notes remaining in circulation for longer than
they should," the Treasury said in 1985. "To maintain cleaner notes in
circulation would be extremely costly."

But the pound coin can stay solid, and clean-ish, for 40 years.


Well, gee -- that's what we've been saying on RCC about rag-bucks for
years now. Yet still people don't get it (compare with the recently
posted "Americans don't like dollar coins" thread.

The one thing I don't understand -- and maybe our UK brethren can clue
me in -- is why the old money needs to be demonetized. Stop making them,
sure -- but let attrition and the banks take them out of circulation.
There doesn't seem to be any pressing need to make them worthless. They
only last nine months in circulation, so in a year's time they'll be all
gone anyway.

--
Bob