BOE cashier says £50 note may be here to stay

Bloomberg

The UK’s 50 pound-note is here to stay, at least for now, according to the Bank of England official who signs the nation’s bills.
Chief Cashier Victoria Cleland said in an interview that the BOE has no plans to scrap the bill — its largest — and hasn’t ruled out eventually replacing the current paper note with a plastic version. Its future was put in question last year after the BOE didn’t include it in its timetable for switching notes to polymer.
A plastic 5-pound bill featuring Winston Churchill debuted in 2016, a new 10-pound will be introduced in September with the 20-pound to follow later. While there are no plans right now for freshening up the most valuable bill, that shouldn’t be taken as a sign the BOE has decided to get rid of it, Cleland said in Basel, where she was among the speakers at a conference on banknotes.
“Not at all,” she said, explaining that the current incarnation was introduced in 2011 and because it isn’t commonly used by people for purchases, it gets less wear and tear. “So it’s not necessary to start thinking about the 50 quite yet. But we will do soon.”
High-denomination banknotes have met with criticism recently. The European Central Bank is discontinuing the 500-euro note to crack down on crime, despite concerns such a move might undermine citizens’ trust in cash or fuel a general debate about ending paper currency. Harvard Professor Kenneth Rogoff has suggested the U.S. abolish its $50 and $100 bills, while some have mentioned the U.K.’s 50-pound note as a potential candidate for scrapping.
With officials keen to stay ahead of counterfeiters with innovative technology such as holograms, the process of designing and producing new banknotes can take years. Britain’s new 20-pound note is expected to begin service in 2020. The U.K.’s new polymer notes, which are water repellent and controversially contain a small amount of animal fat, are more secure and longer-lasting than their traditional paper counterparts.
“We still need to do some cost-benefit analysis to work out whether or not we would want to change the 50 and also at what point in time, said Cleland, whose post was created in 1694, when the institution first issued banknotes. “As I say it’s a fairly new design for a very low counterfeited note.”