I expect you know all about five-pound notes.

Maybe you are lucky enough to get one for your pocket money or perhaps you’ve used them when out and about shopping.

They used to look like this…

Paper notes have been around for hundred of years. However, they easily get ripped and tatty, and tend not to last that long!

The Bank of England periodically changes the design of bank notes– sometimes to include new characters and also to introduce new security features to make it harder for people to copy money – something known as counterfeiting.

In 2016, the Bank of England introduced a new fiver – and one with quite a big difference.

The latest fiver is really hard to fake – in part because it’s made of Polymer – that’s a type of plastic!

Now plastic money might sound like something you play with – not spend. But there’s a stack of great reasons for using polymer bank notes. They’re really hard to fake, they stay cleaner for longer and are much stronger than paper notes.

The polymer fiver is a bit smaller than the paper ones we used to use and it comes with some cool security bits.

As well as a picture of the Queen on the front of the note, there’s also a large see through window in which you can see a portrait of the Queen and the words “£5 Bank of England” printed around the edge. And below this window is a silver foil patch with the word “Five” on it.

When you tilt the note, the word “Five” changes to “Pounds” and a multi-coloured rainbow effect can be seen.