You can mail your old paper twenties to the Bank of England. Seriously. Put them in an envelope. They will send you a cheque or deposit the cash into your bank account.
It’s like a secret service. The Bank has a vault of dead notes. They call them “ceased to be legal tender.” It sounds so dramatic.
Whether you can still use old paper £20 notes, and when they expire
There is no time limit on this. You could find a note from 1970 and they’d still swap it. The Bank is like a friendly dragon hoarding old paper.
The Quirky Exceptions
Not all paper £20 notes are the same. The old ones with Sir Edward Elgar (the composer) on the back? Those stopped being legal tender way back in 2010.
The ones with Adam Smith (the economist)? Those are the ones we’re talking about. They were the last paper ones. You probably have that grumpy-looking guy in your pocket.
Fun fact: Adam Smith is famous for writing about the “invisible hand” of the market. Finding his note in your jeans feels like a tiny, invisible hand handing you a free coffee.
