"Neill Clift [MSFT]" wrote in message
...
"Bob Flaminio" wrote in message
...
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.


This is a strange article for me because I live in the US now and made a
trip
back to the UK a few months back. I picked up a bunch of old coins we had
and also got 3 of those very same old pound notes. They were in decent
condition. I checked the prices on ebay and decided it wasn't worth
keeping them. I tried to use them in the local pub and then took them into
the
bank. They changed them without problem. They wouldn't accept a Ten
Shilling
note though (even older) so I kept that. While there I asked if they had
any
commemoratives and they gave me a 5 pound coin but it was circulated.
On my way to the airport I spent my remaining UK money at a motorway
service station and the woman behind the counter was thrilled with the 5
pound coin. She started telling me how she collects from circulation only
and how she had various things. She was pretty stunned when I pulled the
ten shilling note from my wallet and gave it to her for free. As I left a
bunch
of them were huddled around it.
Neill.



The bank should have changed the 10 shilling note for face value as 50
pence. A clean uncirculated not necessarily old 10 shilling note (from the
1960s, say) might be worth a lot more than face value, depending on the
series. Otherwise, should be worth face value but not spendable in shops.

The notes did circulate alongside the new coins for about a year, perhaps
more (my memory is hazy on this). Sentiment in the UK at the time was
strongly against the new coin, people wanted to keep the note. But they
quickly got used to it and now they don't want to go back. There is also a
circulating 2-pound coinage. The smallest note is £5 (about $9) and they
are hard to get (but useful when children demand some money, I hate handing
out 10s or 20s).

When I visit the States my wallet is soon stuffed with the pesky small
denomination dollar notes received in change, worth about 1/10 the smallest
UK note.

Go for the coins and withdraw the dollar note. People will complain, but
they'll get used to it, and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing can cut
costs drastically.

--
Mike Dworetsky

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