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When do old £20 notes go out of circulation and how long left do I have to use them?

OLD cash £20 and £50 notes are no longer accepted in shops, so if you have one knocking about you will want to exchange it as soon as possible.

The paper notes haven't been valid since after September 30 last year.

 Old paper £20 notes are now out of circulation
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Old paper £20 notes are now out of circulation

But if you've still got any lying about your house, you can exchange them at the Bank of England or a Post Office branch. We explain how to below.

The £20 and £50 paper notes were phased out in 2023 in order to make way for new polymer ones which are harder to counterfeit and last longer.

As of June last year, there were still £14billion worth of the old style notes still in circulation.

That's equivalent to more than 300million individual £20 notes and 160million £50 ones.

How do I exchange an old paper £20 or £50 notes?

The Post Office accepts withdrawn £20 or £50 notes as a deposit into any bank account, so you can pop down to your local branch and deposit the cash.

You can also exchange the paper notes directly with the Bank of England.

They can be sent by post to: Dept Nex, Bank of England, Threadneedle Street, London EC2R 8AH.

You'll need to fill out some paperwork though - full guidance is available on the Bank of England's website.

Alternatively, the notes can be taken in by hand.

Bear in mind though, you could lose the notes by posting them so exchanging in person is probably the best option.

If you have any old legal tender, such as a paper £5 or £10 notes, you can exchange them or deposit them via the same method.

The paper £5 notes stopped being valid tender as of May 2017, whilst the £10 note was withdrawn in March 2018.

The former £5 featured Elizabeth Fry and the old tenner had the face of Charles Darwin on it.

Who features on the plastic £20 and £50 notes?

The new £20 note is slightly smaller than the paper edition and features British painter JMW Turner.

Joseph Mallord William Turner was born in April 1775. He is one of Britain's most famous Romantic painters.

The public nominated the artist after ex-Bank of England governor Mark Carney asked for a deceased cultural figure to be selected.

If that isn't enough information, here's everything you need to know about the polymer £20 note.

Alan Turing's £50 note, which began circulating in June 2021, is the most recent plastic note to enter circulation.

The new polymer note features a photo of him taken in 1951 by Elliott & Fry, alongside a table of a mathematical formula which is widely credited as being the foundation for computer science.

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