India’s method was to make them non-legal tender almost overnight.

Which meant your average law-abiding person could go to the bank with the contents of their mattress and pay it in relatively easily with only a few questions and a slap on the wrist / tax bill for a percentage of it if they were fiddling their books a bit.

Those committing larger-scale tax evasion suddenly went from saving their 20% / 40% or whatever it is in India, to losing 100%.

Our £50 note will be going out of circulation 2022 or 2023 probably, there’s £16bn worth of the current ones still in circulation, if it’s true that few of them ever reach a shop till or bank vault it’s going to be an interesting time for some people. They never stop being legal, but after they’re withdrawn their value becomes less tangible, Banks will still take them for a while, but you might argue if people rarely pay them into banks, they might not be so keen now, or you can exchange them with the BOE directly, you’ll need to show ID and have your identity checked.

I don’t know if the BOE has a requirement to alert anyone if Mr Higgins of Dorset strolls in one day and tries to exchange £200k in fifties, but maybe he doesn’t want to anyway.

I am far from being an expert on macro economics, as a result I’ve been quite cynical of the system. However, The Reith Lectures this year are being given by Mark Carney. If his first lecture is to go by, I’m feeling more encouraged.

Mark Carney Reith Lectures 2020

If it helps BoE, I’ve got 6 £1 notes in the house somewhere. 2 are commemorative ones in cases the previous house owners lost down the back of the kitchen units. I’d get £1.25 on eBay last time I looked.

Yes let’s do away with cash and let the banks totally rule our finances, they never lie, cheat or cause ecenomic collapse through greed and mismanagement

Thanks your contribution, very helpful.

Thanks stumpy just thought I’d point out the obvious to you in a short post.