£20 notes

There are approximately 1.5 billion £20 notes in circulation, making it the most common note in distribution. Although most of the Elgar notes have now been withdrawn, anybody still holding one in their wallet should be able to ask a bank, building society or post office branch to exchange it for the Smith version.

Andrew Bailey, the Bank of England's chief cashier and executive director, banking services says: "For several months from the end of June most banks, building societies and Post Offices should accept Elgar £20 notes for deposit to customer accounts and for other customer transactions, although the choice to exchange the notes rests with each institution.

The change is quite extraordinary IMHO - Sir Edward Elgar was a genius who wrote some of the greatest music ever heard, where Adam Smith was an economist who wrote a tedious book called An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (even the title is a bore). Adam Smith was so dreary they named an institution after after him. So in modern style we embrace an accountant and ignore a man who gave great things to the world - can't help feeling something is wrong somewhere.

As English professor John Keating once said

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, and Ipswich Town winning the Premier League, these are what we stay alive for

But the change/withdrawal has nothing to do with the relative cultural merit of Edward Elgar and Adam Smith.

The 'Elgar' £20 notes had become the most easily counterfeited, and thus most counterfeited, of all Bank of England notes. The current 'Adam Smith' notes, which were introduced years back, are much more difficult to forge. I haven't seen an 'Elgar' note in ages.

quote:

You can cash them in at your bank if you still have some
So dont worry about it

Not worried. Just annoyed they hadn't "shouted it from the rooftops". If we'd been away on holiday today we wouldn't even have known. Something like this should be advertised widely for several weeks, IMO.

Perhaps it's a bit like the announcement re the proposed new pangalactic highway in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - advertised in a locked box etc etc

quote:

Originally posted by munch:
You can cash them in at your bank if you still have some
So dont worry about it.

Local branches are under no obligation to do this. You may end up having to go to the Bank of England.

quote:

Originally posted by Dungassin:

quote:

You can cash them in at your bank if you still have some
So dont worry about it

Not worried. Just annoyed they hadn't "shouted it from the rooftops". If we'd been away on holiday today we wouldn't even have known. Something like this should be advertised widely for several weeks, IMO.

Perhaps it's a bit like the announcement re the proposed new pangalactic highway in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - advertised in a locked box etc etc

As Munch says it's been mentioned in the financial pages of every single newspaper and on every fanacial website for several weeks

I thought we had about 5 old notes, but in fact this is not true. That'll teach me to believe SWMBO. (should have checked for myself)

However, although it appears that it was advertised, it is strange that none of my friends or family knew it was coming (I checked with them after starting this thread).

My main news source is the Yahoo home page - I don't really read the papers (just do the puzzles). Certainly don't recall seeing it there prior to today. Even on holiday I tend to check the Yahoo page using internet links in whichever hotel we are staying.

quote:

Originally posted by munch:

quote:

Originally posted by TomK:

quote:

Originally posted by munch:
You can cash them in at your bank if you still have some
So dont worry about it.

Local branches are under no obligation to do this. You may end up having to go to the Bank of England.

Tom,
If you use your own bank in England They will change them for the next couple of months.

Same up here. The only legal tender (or currency - can never quite remember the difference) up here is Bank of England which is another issue but my point was that local branches wouldn't do it indefinitely wherever you were.

How frustrating must it be to watch so much money going up in flames when the old notes are destroyed. How tight must security be?

quote:

Originally posted by graham55:
But the change/withdrawal has nothing to do with the relative cultural merit of Edward Elgar and Adam Smith.

The 'Elgar' £20 notes had become the most easily counterfeited, and thus most counterfeited, of all Bank of England notes. The current 'Adam Smith' notes, which were introduced years back, are much more difficult to forge. I haven't seen an 'Elgar' note in ages.

The point is that the Bank of England consider Adam Smith as culturally important as Edward Elgar, there are many great contributors to the arts that could have replaced Elgar, but they chose a dull economist to represent our country.

Yes they may have needed replacing, but they could have shown some imagination, some connection with the culture of this country instead of just championing one of their own boring lot.

That said you can go too far the other way, years ago I heard a lecture from the designer who did the Dutch bank notes in the early 90's, with sunflowers etc. on them. He wanted to make money that was not a symbol of power. I think he was wrong, money is the symbol of power, it is power, so perhaps we do not need to have images of rich people sitting on the poor, or of tanks rolling into small countries, but it might be more apt than sunflowers.

The English notes are a bit dull though, as well as being currency that is hard to forge, they should also have some design to them and the Bank of England are pretty lacking in that area.

Personally I would have have WG Grace and then progressed through all the great cricketers this country have given us, but perhaps I am just a little biased on that.

Might go on Photoshop and have a play with a WG Grace note though, that beard would be excellent on a note.

Don't you think this would be much better?

Ah, cricket ... the British cure for insomnia ... (ducks and runs for cover)

quote:

Ah, cricket ... the British cure for insomnia

Works for me too...

I have checked all my £20 notes and am pleased to say they all have some block called Smith on them!

quote:

Ah, cricket ... the British cure for insomnia ... (ducks and runs for cover)

Not if Sir Geoffrey Boycott was at the crease - ducks were not in his vocabulary. Now if Sir Geoff were on a note then I'd buy one.

Cricket and the village green are part of the best thing left about traditional English ways - cream teas .... unfortunately it is being replaced with momentous of Fritz Lang's Canary Wharf if that's the shape of things to come then God help us all. Are we really becoming the Gran Breton of Moorcock's Runestaff



I'd sooner have Duckworth and Lewis on a £20 note than Adam Smith.

What saddens me is that IIRC Adam Smith was not English - he was a Scot.
Just imagine the howls of rage from north of the border if and Englishman (or woman) were to appear on a Scottish banknote.
Ken

you have to save one for your doddering old age to show the grandchildren. I had a trip to Greece and Italy and saved some of their money in my drawing book. It's not around anymore. Very colorful

If you had the balls to keep a grands worth of crisp old twenty pound notes in sequential order, who knows what that may earn in say thirty years from now?

quote:

Originally posted by KenM:
What saddens me is that IIRC Adam Smith was not English - he was a Scot.
Just imagine the howls of rage from north of the border if and Englishman (or woman) were to appear on a Scottish banknote.
Ken

A Scotsman on a Bank of England banknote? What a crime. Even if said Scotsman was one of the greatest brains of all time and said bank was started by a Scotsman.
No the real crime is that monetary policy for Ireland, Scotland and Wales is set by an organisation called the Bank of England. But it would be petty to bring that up would it not?

Personally if you were looking to have a banknote representing England on its own I'd go for Dale Winton.