New £5 plastic banknote to enter circulation in UK

The Bank of England introduced its first plastic 5-pound banknotes Tuesday in UK. They depict Winston Churchill, and are two and a half times more resistant than paper money, in use for over 300 years. Next year, the plastic £ 10 note with the English writer Jane Austen will go into circulation, and followed by the painter J.M.W. Turner £20 note by 2020. In a press release, the bank said it has printed 440 million of the "New Fivers," which will begin to show up immediately in ATMs and at bank counters.

The decision to introduce the plastic banknotes came after six years of research and a public consultation conducted by the Bank of England in the autumn of 2013: the officials had shown the prototypes of the new notes in shopping malls and financial groups around the country, and 87% of the 13,000 respondents said to be in favor of their introduction.

The new banknotes are a little smaller than the current and are made of a thin film and flexible polypropylene, coated with a layer of ink that allows to print the drawing. The current instead are made from cotton fibers and linen. According to the Bank, the new notes will be cleaner, more durable and more difficult to counterfeit, since their production will require a long and expensive procedure. The production cost more but will have a duration of two and half times of paper notes, with consequent benefits for the environment.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said: "The new fiver commemorates one of the greatest statesmen of all time, Winston Churchill, who remarked that a nation that forgets its past has no future".

The plastic notes were introduced for the first time in Australia in 1992 and since then in many countries including Brunei, New Zealand, Romania, Israel and Canada, the birthplace of Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England.