I save currency since we seem to be back in Europe almost every summer.

I have some 5-Pound notes and I understand the "old" ones have been withdrawn but what is "old?"

The ones I have have the segmented metallic strip down the left side. Are these still good for use or do I need to exchange them at a bank when next over?

Thanks

Here's picture of the new ones. Old ones can be exchanged.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/...uld-spend-now/

The new ones are polymer, not paper, and have Winston Churchill on the reverse side, not Elizabeth Fry. The old ones went out of circulation May 5 of this year. Don't know about exchanging them.

Here you are Dukey - everything you ever wanted to know about expired UK notes but were afraid to ask.

I think that your best bet will be a bank but if they won't play, send or take them to the Bank of England.

I have an old 100F note and years ago, assured I could exchange it, I went to the Banque de France on a Paris visit and was turned away empty-handed. No deal.

However, the link above says the maybe more honorable Bank of England guarantees their currency forever. I have one, too, and will be testing that statement.

Thanks, everybody. Mine is obviously one of the old ones.

I exchanged old francs at the Banque de France in person (the one near rue du Bac) after you couldn't use them in stores any more. It was within some time period where you were allowed to do that, as I recall, quite some years ago. I don't think you were allowed to do that forever, that ability expired in Feb 2012, I believe. I still have some exactly, just a few coins.

"...the Banque de France in person (the one near rue du Bac)..."

Yes, that one.


"I don't think you were allowed to do that forever,..."

Correct, as implied.


"I still have some.."

Me, too. Useful maybe for Monopoly.

Dukey, I found myself with an "old" 5 pound note in London a few months ago. The bellman at the hotel saw me being turned away at the desk when asking for change and suggested I use it for tips: "We'll take it off your hands, luv!" So I did, making us both happy. I suppose a less enterprising service provider might not be as pleased to get one, but it's worth a try.

Old pound coins are no longer accepted either; the new ones have a bronze coloured border.

I had no trouble paying old pound coins into my bank account, but that was in a branch of my own bank. It looked like they were building up quite a store to return to the authorities, but I have no idea whether any other bank would have changed them for new ones. Maybe a post office would.

Post offices (virtually all of which are owned by the small businessperson who serves you) are probably the MOST likely retailer to turn old £5 notes away. Their franchisor (a government department) is also the main processor of notes and cash, and usually charges postmasters a different rate for processing current and obsolete (or non-English) notes. Self-evidently: postmasters can't recycle the notes to other customers

On the margins postmasters have been squeezed down to, few can afford generosity to visitors though many might stretch a point for regular customers. No-one ever thanks them for their generosity, though - and they do have a living to earn.

My recent experience in conventional banks is that they simply don't have a process for checking who's a customer and who isn't in many simple transactions. Ask a clerk casually to swap, and they usually seem perfectly happy.

Bank employees typically care as little for their employers' profits as the rest of us.

Flanner must be lucky, I tried to get rid of one of mine in the local bank (not mine as our bank has closed down) and they refused to take the things, luckily a man in the queue did me a deal and then he paid it in.

Nice people in Yorkshire!

And there's this person on another thread who wants to <B>move</B> there. I wonder if he's read this?