The new notes featuring King Charles III will enter circulation from 5th June 2024. You probably won’t see them straight away as just like previous releases they will take a while to filter into the ‘real’ economy. The new banknotes all feature a portrait of King Charles III. Unlike the move to polymer notes all four denominations (£5, £10, £20 & £50) will be released simultaneously. Other than the portrait of the King there are no other changes top the existing designs. This will make it easier to check the new note alongside the existing notes featuring Queen Elizabeth II, who many of us still refer to as The Queen.

What about Queen Elizabeth II notes?

The current polymer banknotes featuring the portrait of Her late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II will remain legal tender and will continue to circulate alongside King Charles II notes. According to the Bank of England the new notes will only be printed to replace those that are worn and to meet any overall increase in banknote usage. This approach is in accordance with guidance from the Royal Household, to minimise any environment or financial impact of changing the notes. So the QE II notes will gradually fade from circulation over a number of years or decades depending on the long term hardiness of the polymer notes. The KC III notes are also be polymer.

Will cash taking retailers need to change their cash counting machines?

The short answer to this question is maybe. It really depends on the type of money counter you have. If you have a count-by-weight machine such as the Tellermate T-iX 2000 or Volumatic CountEasy, then provided it has been updated to count the Queen Elizabeth polymer £5, £10, £20 & £50 notes then it should be ok to count the King Charles III notes alongside and mixed in together. We’ll know for sure once the new notes have hit mass circulation.

Likewise, if you have a basic piece counting friction bank note counter such as the NCS-2200, or NCS2300, then provided they were ok with the QE II notes they should be okay counting the KC III notes. This is because the new notes are the same size as the existing ones and the piece counting friction note counter just counts pieces rather than scanning the note.

Should your business use a high-end note counter such as the NCS-3600, NCS4000, Glory GFS-220 or Safescan 2900 series it will need updating to recognise the note notes.

On 14 September 2017, the Bank of England released a £10 polymer banknote into circulation. The most obvious difference with the old £10 note is that this new note is printed on polymer. Polymer banknotes are manufactured from a transparent plastic film, specially coated with an ink layer that enables it to carry the printed design features of banknotes. The material allows the inclusion of ‘windows’ or clear portions in the design which enhance protection against counterfeits. The £10 polymer banknote is the second banknote that will be launched in the new series; it will be followed by the new £20 (2020) banknote, also printed on polymer. Polymer banknotes are resistant to dirt and moisture so stay cleaner for longer than paper banknotes, and are more durable so will increase the quality of banknotes in circulation.

The New £1 Coin has now been released (28th March 2017)! The long heralded new coin replaces the round £1 coin which as been in circulation since 1983. The new £1 coin has been introduced primarily to combat the number of counterfeit £1 coins in circulation. According to the Royal Mint approximately one in thirty £1 coins in circulation are counterfeit. The new £1 coin is being billed as the most secure coin in the world – it has a host of features that make it much more difficult, but not impossible, to counterfeit.

How Will The New £1 Coin Affect My Business?

All businesses which handle cash will be affected by the new £1 coin. There are two ways this will affect your business and how you count your cash.

Firstly and most obviously, your coin counting equipment will have to accept the new £1 coin.

Secondly, there will be an intrerim period, from 28th March to the 15th October, when we have two types of £1 coins both acceptable as legal tender. After the 15th October the ‘old’ £1 coin will be demonitised and no longer legal tender. Until then businesses will be accepting the two types of £1 coin alongside each other, which may cause a problem with your cash handling equipment, as the two coins have different dimensions and metal content. The new 12 sided £1 coin, at 8.75g is lighter than the round £1 coin. The new £1 coin, at 2.8mm, is thinner than the round £1 coin. The new £1 coin has a diameter of 23.43mm making it fractionally larger than the round £1 coin.

Having to seperate the two types of £1 coin in order to count them does have a benefit in the sense that when making your cash bank deposits you will need to seperate the old and new £1 coins – this is to prevent the old style £1 coins re-entering circulation and reducing the time period for those coins being in the majority. By the end of May the number of old pound coins you encounter on a daily basis should start to reduce as the new £1 coin takes over – although expect a splurge in early October as people rush to spend £1 coins they have found in piggy banks and down the back of old sofas.

What Cash Counters Are Suitable For The New £1 Coin?

Rest assured that we have a range of coin counting machines ready to accept both the old round £1 coin alongside the new £1 coin.

Count By Weight Money Scales –

Volumatic Count Easy Software Version 3.2 is our preferred and recommended cash counter for counting up your till drawer takings. The new version 3.2 of the Count Easy is ready for the new £1 coin as well as the £5 polymer note and will also count the old round £1 coin (due to the weight difference between the £1 coins you will have to seperate them when counting your takings). The Count Easy is also supplied with a 5 year warranty. When ordering your Count Easy make sure that your supplier is offering software version 3.2 as this is the most update version ready for the new £1 coin and the Polymer bank notes.

Safescan 6165 is ready for the new £1 coin and will still count the old round £1 coin. Due to the weight difference between the £1 coins you will have to seperate them when counting your takings….you can have a celebratory drink on the 15th October to “see off” the old coin!

Coin Counters & Sorters –

Safescan 1250 GBP is ready for the new £1 coin and will also count the old round £1 coin.

CS205 Coin Sorter is ready for the new £1 coin and will also count the old round £1 coin.

CS209 Coin Sorter is ready for the new £1 coin and will also count the old round £1 coin.

CS730 Coin Sorter is ready for the new £1 coin and will also count the old round £1 coin.

Glory Mach 3 Coin Sorter coin sorter is ready for the new £1 coin.

Glory Mach 6 Coin Sorter coin sorter is ready for the new £1 coin.

Over the next few years the United Kingdom be be undergoing something of a cash revolution with its cotton paper bank notes being phased out and being replaced by cleaner, more secure, longer lasting and cheaper polymer bank notes.

The £5 polymer bank note is already here, but it will take untill 2020 for the £10 polymer and the £20 polymer to replace their cotton predecessors.

The current time line for the release and withdraw of bank note in England is as follows –

New Polymer £5 note issued on 13th September 2016
Old cotton £5 note withdrawn from circulation May 2017

New Polymer £10 note issued September 2017
Old cotton £10 note withdrawn from circulation 2018

New Polymer £20 note issued by 2020
Old cotton £20 note withdrawn from circulation by end of 2020

Rest assured that Shopstuff has a range of cash counting machines ready for the introduction of the new Polymer bank notes. Our range of NCS bank note counters feature updated software enabling them to count the Polymer notes despite the clear plastic window featured on every Polymer bank note.

NCS2200 Polymer Bank Note Counter – entry level Polymer bank note counter will also count old style cotton-paper bank notes

NCS2300 Polymer Bank Note Counter – Polymer & cotton-paper bank note counter with 4-fold note identification

NCS900 Polymer Bank Note Counter – heavy duty Polymer & cotton-paper bank note counters with multiple note identification

NCS3600 Polymer Bank Note Sorter – heavy duty Polymer & cotton-paper bank note sorter with mixed note counting

Safescan 6165 Polymer Ready Money Scales – Polymer note ready money scales

Volumatic Count Easy Polymer Ready Money Scales – Polymer note ready money scales

Over the next few years the United Kingdom be be undergoing something of a cash revolution with its cotton paper bank notes being phased out and being replaced by cleaner, more secure, longer lasting and cheaper polymer bank notes.

The £5 polymer bank note is already here, but it will take untill 2020 for the £10 polymer and the £20 polymer to replace their cotton predecessors.

We have already seen a number of scare stories about the cashiers being confused by the look and feel of the Polymer £5 note. The new style Polymer bank notes have numerous security features which make them impossible to replicate however, a number of store owners have voiced their concerns about staff accidently taking fake polymer notes by mistake.

Whilst we have our doubts about whether counerfeiters will be able to produce realistic apearing fake Polymer banknotes we do have several fake note checkers designed for helping your staff stop anyone willing to use fake Polymer notes:

Handheld Forged Note Detector – as the new Polymer notes feature a UV viewable hologram number then the UV detectors can be used with the Polymer bank notes. The UV1 is our cheapest forged note checker. The plus sides of this fake note detector are that it is small, portable and will also work with the existing cotton-paper bank notes. The downsides are that it requries batteries and it only looks at one apsect of the note authenticity – the new £5 Polymer note has 11 individual security features.

Desktop Forged Note Detector – as the new Polymer notes feature a UV viewable hologram number then the UV detectors can be used with the Polymer bank notes. This counter top version of our UV fake note checkers runs off mains power and requires reaplcement UV bulbs, just like the device above it is only looking at one aspect of the £5 Polymer note 11-fold security features.