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Elgar banknotes to be withdrawn
Mar 8th 2010 - 11.53amText SizeAAA

Banknotes bearing the image of England's famed composer Sir Edward Elgar will be withdrawn from circulation at the end of June, the Bank of England has said.

The composer of the Pomp and Circumstance Marches has adorned the £20 note since 1999, but the Elgar note will cease to be legal tender after June 30.

The Bank launched a new £20 note featuring 18th-century Scottish economist and Wealth of Nations author Adam Smith in 2007.

There are currently around 1.5 billion £20 notes in circulation (£30 billion), of which around 150 million (£3 billion) are Elgar notes.
His note also features part of Worcester Cathedral to mark the city where he spent most 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 continue to accept Elgar notes in customer deposits for several months after the end of June, but have discretion over whether to accept them from non-customers.

The Adam Smith note is a brighter purple colour, with security features including a larger silver hologram and metallic thread recognition strip to combat fraudsters and a new colour tag which shows up under ultra-violet light.

The £20 note is the UK's most common banknote and most subject to forgery. According to the Bank's figures, 675,000 counterfeit notes were withdrawn from circulation in 2008.

Other figures adorning banknotes are prison reformer Elizabeth Fry on the £5 note, Origin of Species evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin on the £10 note and the first ever Governor of the Bank of England, Sir John Houblon, on the £50 note.

The faces on the notes are drawn from a list of famous names nominated by members of the public. These range from eminent historical figures such as Lord Nelson and Sir Winston Churchill to modern-day celebrities such as Robbie Williams and David Beckham.

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