New 5 pound notes featuring Winston Churchill go into circulation

The Bank of England's first polymer note, the new 5 pound notes featuring Sir Winston Churchill, enters circulation on Tuesday, the bank announced in a statement.

The bank said it has printed 440 million New Fivers and they will begin to be available from many cash machines and bank counters across Britain from Tuesday.

The new 5 pound note is made from polymer, a thin, flexible plastic material. Polymer is resistant to dirt and moisture, and lasts around 2.5 times longer than paper. It has also allowed us to introduce a new generation of security features, making it even harder to counterfeit.

Paper 5 pound notes will be gradually withdrawn as they are banked by retailers and businesses. People can continue to spend paper 5 pound notes as usual until May 5, 2017, after which they will cease to be legal tender. Paper 5 pound notes can be exchanged at the Bank of England after the date.

The Bank announced that it will introduce a polymer 10 pound note featuring Jane Austen in summer 2017, followed by the J.M.W. Turner 20 pound note by 2020.

The new polymer notes will still have tiered sizing, bold numerals and a similar colour palette to the current notes to help blind and visually impaired people tell the difference between them.

Polymer 10 and 20 pound notes will also have a tactile feature created by a series of raised dots. People with visual impairments will be able to tell the 5 pound note apart because it does not have this feature.

Commenting on the introduction of The New Fiver, the Bank 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."

A charity auction of Bank of England notes with low serial numbers will be held on Oct. 3. The money raised will be donated to the Myotubular Trust, The Lily Foundation, and Bliss. Endit