Spend your paper fivers now, warns Old Lady

Time is running out for old paper fivers, with the Bank of England warning on Wednesday that the legal tender status of the old £5 note - featuring Elizabeth Fry - would be withdrawn in one month’s time, on 5 May.

The bank said it was encouraging anyone who still had paper £5 notes lying around to spend them in the next month, and confirmed more than 50% of the paper fivers in circulation had already been returned to the bank and destroyed.

That still left 160 million Fry £5 notes in circulation, however.

“After 5 May 2017, retailers and the public no longer have to accept the paper £5 note as payment or in change,” the Bank of England said in a statement.

“The new polymer £5 note featuring Sir Winston Churchill will be the only £5 note with legal tender status.”

Some banks and building societies could accept paper £5 notes after 5 May, although that would be up to each institution.

“The Bank of England will continue to exchange Fry £5 notes for all time, as we would for any other Bank of England note which no longer has legal tender status.”

Preparations were being made at the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street for the issue of the new polymer £10 note featuring Jane Austen, due in September.

The note would recognise her “universal appeal” and “enduring contribution” to English literature, the Bank of England said.

Jane Austen was joining Sir Winston Churchill, Adam Smith, and Matthew Boulton and James Watt on Bank of England notes.