9th Mar 10
Sir Elgar to go from £20 notes
by Adam Richards
The Bank of England has announced plans to withdraw banknotes bearing the image of famed English composer Sir Edward Elgar by the beginning of July.
The composer of the Pomp and Circumstance Marches has appeared on the £20 note since 1999, but the Elgar note will not remain as legal tender after the 30th of June.
The Bank has launched a new £20 note which features 18th-century Scottish economist and Wealth of Nations author Adam Smith in 2007.
There is currently about 1.5 billion worth of £20 notes in circulation, of which around 150 million are Elgar notes.
His note also includes part of the Worcester Cathedral to mark the city where he spent the majority of his life, and the venue where the first full performance of his Enigma Variations took place in 1899.
Banks, building societies and post offices will keep accepting the Elgar notes in customer deposits for a number of months at the end of june, but would have discretion as to whether to accept them from non-customers.
The new Adam Smith note is a brighter purpose colour, and includes additional security features such as a larger silver hologram and metallic thread recognition strip in a bid to fight counterfeiters, and a new colour tag which shows up in ultra violet light.
The £20 note is the most common banknote in the UK to be subject to forgery, and according to the Bank’s figures, 675 counterfeit notes were taken from circulation in 2008.
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