The coin you held up against the two dollar bill was actually a 2p coin, your equivalent of 2 cents, a £2 coin is quite large and bi-coloured both gold and silver and, if someone says that's £1.99 and you give then a 2p coin they'll think you're having a laugh 😂👍

The different sizes help blind people. The coins also have different tactile feels to them and have a memorable pattern (1p is small and smooth, 2p is large and smooth, 5p is small with ridges, 10p is large with ridges, 20p is small and non-circular, 50p is large and non-circular, £1 is small and thick, £2 is large and thick). American money being the same size and colour and tactile feel must be really awful for the visually impaired. It's one of the things I like about UK/EU money.

So in Britain, we have from smallest to biggest, 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, and then we have the £1 coin and the £2 coin (not to be confused with the 1p coin and 2p coin lol). The £1 coin was recently changed to be 12 sided, rather than a perfect circle, to make it harder to counterfeit. And yes, the 50p coin is very common over here, while the £50 note, you'll rarely see.

You were correct about the reason for money sizes being different. Visually impaired people can tell by touch what note or coin they're handling. Over the years a few of our coins got redesigned because their size/shape was too close to other coins. I'm not visually impaired but can identify each note & coin with my eyes shut, it's a very good system

Hi guys, great video as per usual. The 2 pence bronze coin is equivalent to 2 pennies not 2 dollars. We also have a one pound coin and a two pound coin, that you don’t appear to have, but will see lots of. We tend to use the smaller denominations ( I can’t remember the last time I saw a fifty pound note), so don’t be shocked if that’s the only fifty you see.

"pence" is plural of "penny". Your equivalent would be "cents" or "cent". The (approximate) equivalent of the $1 bill would be the £1 coin. We used to have £1 notes, but they were replaced by the first (circular) £1 coin in the 1980s, and that was then replaced by the new (12-sided) £1 coin a few years ago. Have to disagree with Angela - the fact that all the bills are the same size (and colour) is something that I particularly dislike about American money. I keep notes (bills) in my wallet in denomination order, with the highest-value ones at the back, so with the higher-denomination ones being taller, it's easy to see where the transitions are. No, there are not chips in the money. There are metallic sections as an anti-counterfeiting device. "I promise to pay the bearer on demand..." is the basis of fiat currency. Basically, the note itself is fundamentally worthless, it's just an IOU. The Bank of England technically promises to pay the note's face value to whoever presents it at the bank. JMW Turner was a famous English painter, known particularly for atmospheric landscapes. His name was given to the annual "Turner Prize" for art. Yes, 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and £2 coins are in common circulation, although £2 coins are less common. The £5 coin exists, but is not in common circulation. Another thing to note is that the 2p coin (which you missed) is sized such that it is twice the weight of a 1p coin, and similarly for 5p and 10p coins. Therefore, you can weigh a mixture of 1p and 2p coins (or 5p and 10p coins) to ascertain their value without having to sort them.

Mixing up pennys and pounds is so funny. Imagine you’re a cashier and you’re handed 2p (£0.02) for something that costs £2.

Yes, the 50p is in common circulation. For some reason it is one of the coins I most commonly use personally.

Pence is simply the plural of penny and equivalent to your cents and penny. So two pence (2p) is just two pennies, not equivalent to two dollars. There are also one and two pound (£1 and £2) coins, which are equivalent to your one and two dollar bills. And bill (US) = note (UK). So we say a five pound note. Hope that helps.

When I used to visit the USA twice a year I was shocked at how easy it was to get the notes mixed up due to them all being the same size & colour. You really have to look at them carefully to make sure you don't give someone a $20 bill instead of a lower denomination. I have no idea how blind people cope with it. It is a shame that you didn't have all the coins because you would notice how different they were from each othet in size, shape and weight. Again, this is for the benefit of the blind. When you visit us here in the UK you will also realize that you don't have to add tax onto the price of items in the shops because it's already done. What you see on the price tag is what you pay. Great reaction, albeit a bit frantic.

Cool fact: combining one of each UK coin (1p,2p,5p,10p,20pand50p) creates a coat of arms.

The guy on the back of the £20 note, Joseph Mallard William Turner (Usually abbreviated to JMW Turner) was a 19th century painter, who is widely considered to be one of the greatest artists Britain has ever produced. The ship visible behind him on the note is the HMS Temeraire, which was the subject of a painting by Turner called The Fighting Temeraire - voted as Britain's favourite painting in a BBC poll a few years ago (it's also the painting that James Bond discusses with Q when they meet for the first time in Skyfall).

Euro bills are also different sizes and colours and quite honestly, it's one of the best things about them. We don't usually hold our bills in our hands, they are in our wallets until we use them to pay... and if you open up a wallet, we can easily spot every bank note in there simply because they "stack" in size. If you place a €50, €20, €10 and €5 in order (large to small), you can see in an instant without flicking through the bills that you have €85. If you do the same with $85 you have to look at each individual bill to know how much you have in total simply because you can't tell from a distance. Open up an EU/UK wallet and you immediatly see which bills you have in there. If you really want to hold money in your hands, fold the stack in half (like we usually do without even thinking about it), or use your thumb to pinch the stack of bills from the front and back instead of sideways :)

So sweet thinking that 2p is the equivalent of £2 🥰

Originally our paper notes also had the size scale for sight impaired, but the new notes also having the braille like dotes, such a thoughtful feature to add. End of next month the last paper £20 and £50 notes go out of circulation so we'll be completely polymer.

Being British I found American notes hard work, if I didn't put them in order of value I couldn't figure what was which. Our plastic notes are far easier to count at the end of a work day, and last longer,

Afternoon all. The big reason why British notes are all different sizes is to help blind individuals more easily differentiate between note. Same reason that certain parts of the notes are raised (lightly run your thumb over the part that reads "Bank of England". Quick tip for when you get over here. Remember the difference between the penny & the pound (cents & dollars). Coins tend to be pennys (cents), (£1 & £2 being the main 2 exceptions), Notes are pounds Edit: visually impaired, rather than blind. My apologies for my slip up there

The milling round the edge of coins is a hangover from coins made out of silver - it stops people shaving the coins.

Something important that hasn't been mentioned is that Bank of England aren't the only Sterling notes. For example I'm in Northern Ireland and we use BoE notes but also Ulster Bank, Bank of Ireland, First Trust etc. Scotland have their notes too (im unsure about Wales) all are sterling notes but just issued by different banks.

You do need to be aware that the UK has become almost cashless since Covid - most people use debit cards or phone apps even for small sums. Cash is still accepted everywhere so don't worry! It might have been interesting to compare values too: as of just now, the US dollar is worth 77 pence.

In the UK we are more of a digital cash system, using debit cards (checking account equivalent), and credit cards. We also use contactless payment from mobile phones or smart watches, available on Android or Apple devices. I personally very rarely have physical cash.

Your gonna be really confused when you discover Scotland has three different £100.00 notes 😂😂

Sorry if this has been answered already, but the 20 pence shapes is a Heptagon and the newer coins have a fragment of the coat of arms on it so if you have all of them and place them just right it will complete the coat of arms. I personally thought it was cool lol

It's worth noting that they have different note designs in Scotland and also Northern Ireland I believe. There's also technically a £100 Scottish note that's legal tender but I've never seen it myself.

The reason for the different sized notes is so that blind people know what they’re handling. Same with the strong colour difference between the notes. It’s so that visually impaired people can make a distinction between the different notes. Same with the coins regarding size. Word to the wise; many places are still reluctant to handle cash due to COVID. They prefer digital payments but will probably take cash if there’s no alternative.

I love seeing how enthusiastic and excited you are about your coming trip. I really hope it lives up to or exceeds your expectations.

The thickness of the coins is quite important. They are designed so that a 2p is exactly twice the weight of a 1p and a 10p is twice the weight of a 5p. So they can be weighed together to allow them to be counted quicker in shops and banks

I have really enjoyed your vlogs. You are probably the most knowledgeable about the UK and seem very curious to know more:-)

It's great to see people pushing their boundaries and trying something new. I hope you enjoy my country (UK) when you get there!

That was funny, watching you two constantly taking the money from each other. Its mine, no mine, no mine. LOL.

Alan Turing on the £50 note is fairly recent, I remember a few years ago we got to vote on it, of course as a gay man who is a computer scientist I voted for Alan Turing, and I'm so happy he won! For what he did for the country during WW2 and how he was treated was aweful! It's not much, but at least it's continuing his legacy!

Most of the features of modern pound notes are either accessibility/qualify of life features to make them more durable and easy to use and recognise, or to prevent fraud. It used to be that, when dealing with cash at my casino, we'd have to mark bills with a pen to tell if they're fake, which leads to a lot of false negatives slipping through, or holding them under a black light to check for hallmarks, which is slow and cumbersome when you're dealing with bulk. The hologram windows are part of this, but the notes also have serial numbers, watermarks, UV activated ink - all the bells and whistles when it comes to making it harder to forge them.

I am aware of the £50 note, but have never ever had one issued to me. If I was withdrawing a significant sum from the Bank I could ask for it to be in £50 notes, but generally speaking you don’t see them in general usage, at least where I live. The £20 note is the ‘go to’ high value Note in most people’s wallet.

You'll have such fun in Scotland as there are 3 different banks printing their own Scottish-themed banknotes.

It's also worth remembering that dollars and pounds aren't exactly equivalent in value. Currently, £1 is worth about $1.30. The Euro is closer in value to the US dollar. €1 is worth $1.08

Turner (on the back of the 20) was an artist. The picture in the background is one his famous works, The Fighting Temeraire, showing an old wooden warship being towed away to be broken up. Coincidentally it also appears in the Bond film "Skyfall," when Bond meets Q in an art gallery to take delivery of his gun and radio, the two sit on a bench and briefly discuss the painting.

The Bank of England was founded in 1694, the first central bank in the world, not the first to print money. They were the first to print government authorised money in payment of government debt. The size of the notes produced has consistently reduced over the centuries, as has the value! Have a great trip guys.

Turner is one of Britain's most renowned painters and mostly known for his colourful and vivid depiction of British landscapes/ countryside. Also, if you arrange the pence coins in a particular way, it forms the Royal coat of arms 😉

We used to have a £1 note years ago but they were switched out to a coin instead, also the plastic bills are relatively new our notes used to be more papery.

Advantages of the different sizes of pound notes is that you can tell the different denominations apart just by feel, and it makes it easier to sort and arrange them since the larger denominations will stick out further.

Be careful in the uk when spending a 50. They can be quite unusual and high value. Some places may not take them or won’t want to give you change on a small item. I would pay by card as much as possible and just keep a small amount of cash.

This was worth watching just because it's the first time I've ever seen the new £50 note. The only time you ever see them is with tourists who've been stiffed with them and then no shops will accept them - best to change them at a bank. I even once took out £1000 in cash to change to travel money because you got a better deal if you did it in cash, and even then the bank gave me £20 notes not £50 notes!

The 50p, 10p, 5p and 2p used to be bigger. When I was young there were still one and two shilling coins which were interchangeable with the 5p and 10p. We've introduced £1 and £2 coins because they last longer than paper money. The £1 had a major redesign recently over to the bimetal version.

We do actually have a £100 note but it's very rarely used, plus we also have £5, £20, £50 and £100 coins which are classed as commemorative coins to be collected but are still legal tender

Lovely to see you looking at our currency. Here in the UK the £50 note, isn’t very widely used and a lot of smaller shops etc will not accept them. Try and use any £50 notes that you have in larger shops etc. I hope you have a great time.

Joseph Mallord William Turner - 1775-1851 - is one of my favourite artists and he was born in Covent Garden, London, the son of William Turner of Devon (1745-1829), a barber and wig-maker and his wife, Mary -nee Marshall, whose family had great success in the butcher's trade. His father encouraged his son's work by displaying it in his shop. There are books of his work, including fascimiles of his European tour sketchbooks, one particularly beautiful one of Venice. Amongst his more famous works is The Fighting Temeraire. the 98 gun HMS Temeraire, one of the last second-rate ships of the line that had a role in the Battle of Trafalgar, being towed to it's final berth at Rotherhith to be turned into scrap. The painting, an oil-on-canvas, was exhibited at The Royal Academy in 1839.

UK banknotes also have raised series of dots to denote each note for the visually impaired; The £10 note has two clusters of raised dots in the top left hand corner. The £20 note has three clusters of raised dots in the top left hand corner. While not braille it is an indication of the denomination of the note.

And FYI - Modern polymer banknotes were first developed by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and The University of Melbourne. They were first issued as currency in Australia during 1988 (coinciding with Australia's bicentennial year); by 1996, the Australian dollar was switched completely to polymer banknotes. Romania was the first country in Europe to issue a plastic note in 1999 and became the third country after Australia and New Zealand to fully convert to polymer by 2003. Other currencies that have been switched completely to polymer banknotes include: the Vietnamese đồng (2006) although this is only applied to banknotes with denominations above 10,000 đồng, the Brunei dollar (2006), the Nigerian Naira (2007), the Papua New Guinean kina (2008), the Canadian dollar (2013), the Maldivian rufiyaa (2017), the Mauritanian ouguiya (2017), the Nicaraguan córdoba (2017), the Vanuatu vatu (2017), the Eastern Caribbean dollar (2019) and the Pound sterling (2021).

I never would have thought that a video about comparing foreign currency could be so chaotic. In a good way, of course. You guys always have great banter and Angela dropping her "facts" as Ethan swiftly debunked them cracked me up! Hope your travel preparations are going well.

When you get to the UK go into a bank and swap your £50 notes. Not many places like to take them. The notes were designed the way they are to help against counterfeits. And the 2pence is Like 2cents not 2 pounds. We do have a £2 coin that is gold and silver.

Having different sized notes makes it much easier to grab the note you're looking for if you have a mix in your wallet. I always have mine in order, 5,10,20, so, if I need a 20, I can thumb the top of it and pull it out without having to search through my notes :)

Just so you know, if you take a £50 note into a shop the shop assistant normally has to get their manager to check over it before accepting it. There's been issues of fraudsters attempting to remake them for a number of years so don't be offended if you come across this, just go with the flow 😊

One thing that you might like to be aware of is that the price labelled on goods (barring errors) is the price that you pay. There is no additional cost at the checkout.

I promise to pay the bearer is not to do with gold but silver, which is why the British currency is also known as sterling as in 'sterling silver'. Originally 0ne pound was more or less an IOU for one pound of sterling silver.

Although "Pence" is the correct term, almost no one in the UK says Pence, we just use the letter P. So it would be 1p (1 Pee), 2p (2 Pee) etc. Pounds and Quid are usually interchangeable in conversation, like Dollars and Bucks in the US.

The people on the back of British notes are changed every decade or so, personally I think it's great that they feature a diverse range of people and not just a bunch of dead politicians. Also the backs of our coins often have 'limited editions' to commemorate things like the Olympic Games or historical events, some of these are only issued in very small amounts and can become more valuable than the face value.

£50 notes are pretty rare, I can't remember the last time I saw one. A lot of shops don't like to accept them as they're the most commonly forged note. The 2p coin is worth 2 pennies, not two pounds. we do have £1 and £2 coins but you don't seem to have any. The shape of the 20p and 50p coins is to help the visually impaired as is the size and colour of the notes. You'll notice that the 5p and 10p coins have milled edges unlike the 1p and 2p coins, again this helps the visually impaired although originally silver coins had milled edges to deter people shaving the edges off pure silver coins. You won't need much actual cash in the UK as virtually everywhere accepts contactless payments now, there are even some small businesses that don't accept cash. Also, the bit that says "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of twenty pounds" refers to the Bank of England not the Queen. You can see the Governor of the Bank of England's name and signature in the top left corner. It used to mean you could exchange the note for £20 of gold, now it means you can exchange an old, out of circulation note for a current note. J.M.W. Turner is one of Britain's most famous artists. They started putting famous people on the notes in 1990 and they change them every few years.

Be aware that those are only Bank of England bank notes (bills). Scotland and Northern Ireland have multiple different decorations to their bills which look very different from the Bank of England version. Even through the Scottish and Northern Irish money doesn't look the same, they have the same value. Here's a video showing the Scottish bank notes kzfaq.info/get/bejne/n8B0f8uj3NrJe4E.html Northern Irish bank notes video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qb10eZea2dqRnmQ.html

Wow that's the first new £50 note I've ever seen. Not many people tend to carry them around. Last time I paid with an old one in a store all the staff gathered round to check it as they aren't often seen.

I'm british and i have never seen a polymer £50 note until now!!! :D Also 50p coins are widely circulated and used in the UK, and the 50p have the widest variety of designs on their reverse than any other coin by far! Quite a few are commemorative but all are still legal tender apart from the older 50p coins made before 1997.

One interesting place to visit in London is the Bank of England museum. Amongst the things on show are the evolution of British currency and the security on the notes. There's a real gold ingot that you are invited to attempt to lift. It's held quite securely.

Definitely stay away from the £50 note guys, They are very hard to spend in the UK as a lot of businesses will refuse to take them as they are scared of being left with forgeries.

Hi Guys, we call it change also. We used to have one pound notes up to the early eighties but these were taken out of circulation and replaced for the one pound coin. Notes and coins have changed over the years. 5 and 10 pence coins used to be a lot bigger than they are now, and it hasn’t been that long since paper notes were replaced by plastic notes. A lot of the changes were in aid to tackle counterfeit fraud. The 50 pence piece and the 2 pound coins are also popular and are common in circulation as well. Hope this helped. Great video by the way :)

The main reason behind the size difference in UK notes is not so that they can be identified by the blind easily, though this is a welcome side effect. It goes back quite a long way and is to avoid misbundling, that is putting a note of one denomination in a stack of another. This was particularly a problem when notes were all printed in the same colour. If the notes are of different sizes, if you include a note of a different denomination in the stack it stands out if it is a large denomination and is detected in the riffle test if it is smaller.

As others have pointed out you want to go to a bank when you get here and change the £50 note, as it’s hard to get anywhere to accept it. If you are going to Scotland bear in mind they issue their own notes, that look very different. While they are a valid currency in the rest of the U.K., and are effectively interchangeable with the Bank of England issued notes, you may find some shops outside of Scotland are wary of accepting them. The 2p coin is the equivalent of 2cents, as there is a larger bi-metal £2 coin. Some slang you may find useful: Quid is the slang term for pound, and is quite common, so don’t be surprised if some tells you the value of something in ‘quid’.

if i have a 'wad' (rare these days) you stack the notes from large to small. the size makes it super easy to find the right note without really looking at the stack.. also super useful for blind folk

JMW Turner was a famous painter (a precurser of the Impressionists). You can see a lot of his best paintings at the Tate Gallery in London.

We also have £5 coins. They are not in regular circulation and are pretty exclusive mints around major celebrations. Another fun not is 50p coins come in many different reverse side mintings. Nearly every season the British mint release a new series and often people collect them to complete the series.

Since Covid, contactless has become the way most of us pay for most things using debit cards (obviously chip and PIN is available). Avoid £50 notes - outside of London they're uncommon. £20 is the commonest high denomination note in general use.

The plastic notes were invented in Australia, with watermarks and holograms, and they worked so well that the world has followed. They also go through the washing machine without damage . . .

The building on the transparent window on the £10 polymer banknote is Winchester Cathedral where the English novelist Jane Austen is buried her portrait is on the reverse of the banknote.

Fun fact: the difference in size between different UK notes is linear. So, for instance, the difference between the sizes of the £5 and the £10 is the same as the difference between the £10 and the £20. Australian notes actually do the same, but, supposedly, they also get fractionally thicker by the same ratio.

I've almost forgotten what its like to use cash, just about everywhere here in the UK is contactless now, either with a phone app or bank card. I've even seen places that no longer accept cash. Sad really as I don't like the idea of a cashless society but with cash machines getting ever rarer trying to get cash can be a pain.

You are exactly right about the size thing, it's really helpful for the visually impaired. My dad is blind and can still use cash because he knows the sizes by touch.

that strip on the $100 bill we used to have on all our notes before the news ones, they all used to tear at the strip also haha

Just to let you know for when you're here in the UK, some shops/restaurants stopped taking cash since the pandemic and only accept card. Also £50s are actaully very uncommon, I don't think you can even get them at ATMs (I've never used one before), and some small shops won't accept them, mostly just supermarkets will. Also, we call it change too, our 50p is pretty common, and the 2 pence is not the same and 2 pound -pence is like cents and pounds are like dollars, so that 2 pence piece you have is more similar to 2 cent. We do have 1 and 2 pound coins and they're both pretty cool. And for if you go to Scotland, they have different cash there but you can use English money in Scotland and Scottish money in England:) Hope you love the UK! :)

The "chip" in our bank notes is a simple RF circuit like you see in key cards which allows machines to scan the note and the return signal tells the machine the value it makes counterfeiting very hard and makes designing ATM's vending machines and any other cash related technology much simpler and more reliable.

Absolutely burst out laughing at the David Brent bit there 😁 also i think the money is different sizes to assist blind people or something

in the uk we stack our notes small to large, so its harder to give say a 10 as a five, if you mix up your notes all the same size, you could end up giving some one a 10 for a five and not notice very hard to do in the UK.

The security device in the clear window is a hologram which is a special type of image that gives the appearance of motion when the banknote is moved. It is effectively impossible to forge.

Haha I've actually never seen the new £50 note, businesses very very rarely accept them for some reason, and cash machines will -always- _almost always_ give you a maximum nomination of £20 for any amount of money. Also I think one of the reasons why our notes are different sizes is so that is clearer when presenting money to someone what notes are being handed over. Typically you'd have the largest value notes at the bottom, so you're able to see all the different stacks without having to fan it out.

Remember Scotland has it's own notes, including a £100 note.

Just come across your channel, love it! @4.50 - The notes are different sizes to aid blind \ partially sighted people - Just realised there are many wise comments below so I will now stop typing. Mister Flibble's comment is worth a read, you'll learn a lot, I can vouch that his information is correct (btw I don't know the guy).

Scotland also have our own versions of these notes - issued by 3 different banks (so there are 4 versions of each of the notes) most small shops and bars will not accept a 50 pound note - and you will rarely see them our notes do not have chips in them. I really couldn't cope if all the notes were the same size. yes, we call it "loose change" (slang in some places is "smash") - we have the 1p, 2p, 5p, 20p, 50p and £1 and £2 coins. the copper coins are pence - 100 pence to a pound.

Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own notes. They are worth exactly the same as the English notes, and the Scottish ones in particular look cooler than the English ones.

You wouldn't believe the security features UK money has, holograms, raised lettering, a unique font just to name a few of them. They have raised lettering and are different sizes to help the blind community determine what they have in their pockets. Incidentally, keep notes in a wallet, purse or money clip, do not put them straight into your pocket, being polymer they slide out of your pocket way too easily.

In all honesty, you almost never see a £50 note. Most cash machines (ATM's) don't even stock them. Also, the reason it has "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of ..." and the reason we call them notes not bills is because they evolved from a thing called a 'promissory note'.

I’m sure others have commented, mainly a point or two at a time, but to cover some of the points I noted when watching: - the notes are indeed different sizes so as to help visually impaired people, aside from the Braille - I don’t know the dates it happened but we have not had a £100 in my memory and I have never seen one (I am 60). - however, to open up an entirely new can of worms, the Bank of Scotland DO have a £100 note, and issue all the other same denominations as the Bank of England notes you showed. These are technically legal currency but some shops may refuse to take them (though they are not allowed to refuse) - there are no “chips” in any of the notes, just various sorts of security holograms and inclusions to make counterfeiting more difficult - the coin you thought was a £2 (two pound) was in fact a 2p (two pence), just 2 pennies. There is a much, much bigger £2 coin and a £1 coin that is smaller than the £2 but still very thick - the £50 note is widely used, but is not very common to see in daily use. Some smaller shops may refuse to take them, due to the monetary risk if it turns out to be a fake. Legally they are not allowed to refuse, but some do refuse to accept them. - when taking cash out of an ATM a you will almost always only get £10 and £20 notes. I have never, ever received any other denomination, though I do believe that some ATMs on college campuses and nearby do give out £5 notes - the 1p and 2p coins, and increasingly the 5p coin are becoming every less used, as prices negate their benefit. Though many shops do still stick to the £x.99 pricing point for goods, so you will end up with some, but then will find it difficult to find the right time and place to use them and will probably end up with a pocket full of them! - the 50p coin is widely used, as are the 10p and 20p, and even more so the £1 and to a lesser degree the £2 coins - J M W Turner is a very famous 18th/19th Century English painter, just as Jane Austen is a famous author. - all the notes are plastic now, as you saw. This has only happened in the last few years. You can still come across older style £20 notes (which are even bigger than the current £20) but try to avoid them as some shops think they are no longer legal tender, though they are. - the notes are made of a plastic polymer which many people think of as indestructible- but they are not. They have an expected life of 5 years as opposed to 2 years for the old paper/linen notes. - final point - all this talk of notes and coins is fun and interesting, and of course these things are legal tender everywhere, but in practice we mainly use credit or debit cards, mostly in contactless format (up to £100 per transaction, you need to use the chip and PIN for higher amounts). I know people who literally now never use cash and it is somewhat unusual to pay larger amounts using cash anymore. Or our Apple or Samsung Pay features on our phones! One key example of this is the fact that you cannot pay for bus or subway (tube) tickets in London with cash - you have to buy a ticket from a machine ahead of time, buy a multi use “Oyster” card, or touch on and off a service using a credit, debit or phone transaction.

Travelling to the states (pre plague) I found myself getting very annoyed with the currency all being the same size & colour. Especially in low light areas or at night it really slowed me down when paying. The texture reminds me of playing monopoly 😂

When it comes to cash familiarity is really important I think, when I visited the states I hated how all the notes looked the same to me. It's probably instinctive to Americans when trying to tell the difference but I spent the entire holiday paranoid I was somehow going to waste a $100 bill thinking it was a $1 bill. With our notes all looking so different I don't have that problem lol.

Few little facts for you is bank notes are actually an I owe you from the bank, hence the "I promise to pay the barer the sum of" being printed on them. The size difference in our notes is to help the blind differentiate between notes. The notes you have there are Bank of England notes, we also have Bank of Scotland which look quite different.

Great video ! Our currency notes change every few years , and always vary the historical figures which appear on the back. Since they went plastic they all reduced in size a fair amount and although I'm 56 years old I've never ever had a £50 note. I'm pretty sure the Bank of England dont issue high denomination notes to keep down counterfeiting 😘👍

Fun fact with the UK polymer notes, you can use the corners of them to play vinyl records.

Interesting fact. Because the Queen has been on the throne for so long, all our current notes and coins bear an image of her head on one side. Before decimalisation (1971) it was commonplace to see coins bearing the heads of previous monarchs, and dated accordingly. When Charles becomes King his head will, of course, start to appear, but old coins with the Queen on them won't routinely be taken out of circulation. Notes tend not to last too long anyway, so those with the Queen on them might disappear fairly quickly. I wonder if the Bank of England/Royal Mint have already prepared new designs against the day. Probably.

We have a 2p coin, which is massive. The reason is because we used to have a ½p coin, & they made the 2p really big so it would be four times the weight of the ½p coin, so banks could use the same counting machine for both denominations. When there were 240 pence to the pound, we had coins at 1/20 (shilling), ⅒ (florin) & ¼ (crown). In 1970, when the penny was revalued from 1/12 of a shilling to ⅕ of a shilling, the £¼ coin was changed to £⅕ so that all coins would be divisible by each other.

Some of our coins also have different designs on them mainly the 50p can have pictures of rabbits or saying etc but also on the £2. Although rarer you may also come across 10p with letters of the alphabet on them too

We got rid of the £1 note in 80s due it it being easy to counterfeit. I wish we could bring it back now it is extremely hard to counterfeit the new notes. I hate having so many coins in my pocket. Turner is a famous painter from the 18th century known for many of his works of romantic paintings. Alan Turing has only recently been put onto the back of the £50note as the old ones have only just been phased out, although some shops don’t except £50 due to again how easy it was to counterfeit the old notes which remained in circulation until recently.

I live in the UK and I rarely use physical currency these days. My exceptions are for some tipping and paying my window cleaner. Otherwise, I use my Apple watch contactlessly for most everything on a daily basis, including collecting Costa Coffee points. I will use my debit/credit cards (chip and pin) for large purchases. Like previous comments, I cannot remember the last time I saw a £50 note. I suggest you walk into any high street bank once you are here and ask then to break it down to lower denominations, which they will do for free. Finally, if you ever need to visit a Dr, come to Scotland as there are no prescription charges.

Dont know if anyone has mentioned but, all uk coins are also collectible and for example the 50p has 70 or more different stamps and super common as is the same for 10p, £1 and £2 coins

We do call it change or some call it shrapnel because it acts like shrapnel when it falls out of your pocket. There are 2 coins that you didn't have which are the 1£ and 2£ coins. The first being the rough diameter of the 20 pence but thicker and is circular with ridges and the second being slightly bigger than the 50 pence and is made with two types of metal.