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Bank of England’s short videos show how to spot genuine banknotes
Howard Lake | 3 October 2018 | News
The Bank of England has published a series of short films designed to help businesses and retailers to fight fraud by checking that banknotes are genuine.
The three-minute films should be useful for charities, charity shops and any individuals with responsibility for counting and checking donations.
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Two new films focus on the security features of the £20 and £50 notes. According to the Bank of England, these are “the two most commonly counterfeited notes”. The Bank has previously published videos covering the security elements of the £5 and £10 notes.
£20 note’s security features
Source: Bank of England on YouTube
£50 note’s security features
Source: Bank of England on YouTube
Another film covers the security features on all current banknotes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAk92Q5O3h0
Source: Bank of England on YouTube
The Bank of England is encouraging businesses to view the films, to update their training resources accordingly and to pass on this latest advice to staff.
Old banknotes
At the same time as announcing these new films, the Bank of England announced that there are still many millions of the old £5 and £10 notes unaccounted for. They can all still be accepted at many banks and at the Post Office. The Bank of England will also replace them free of charge in perpetuity when presented at the Bank.
According to the @bankofengland "there are still around 124 million paper £5s and 122 million paper £10 notes… out there". Old banknotes can still be exchanged: https://t.co/LEc50gAmCF #firstfiver #firsttenner pic.twitter.com/lea0b3JgSF
— Howard Lake (@howardlake) October 3, 2018
Main image: Jane Austen £10 note. © Bank of England [2017] on Flickr.com.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.