Like, what’s the point of its existence when that denomination is difficult to come by since ATMs don’t disperse them. I mean, will they still refuse a £50 note when paying for a £45 purchase? They go full counterfeit detection mode just because an individual has it despite that being the real one (not fake). Also, why does the Bank of England keep printing more of that when they know people barely use it anyway?
Because historically they were to high to be used much. So many retailers staff were less able to ID fakes. Hence fakes were created.
The. By the mid 2000s as prices got to the point hey were more useful. They were still high enough that card payments became common. So retailers rarely had the till cash to change them.
When I was at Uni and working part time my boss told me it was because the £50 note was easier to forge so they would want us to check it and ideally not accept it. The explanation of which I accepted without question at the time. LOL I didn't give a shit.
But thinking about it more why would a large denomination be any easy or harder to forge than a lower one?
So I don't know actually.
There’s actually also a few notes of huge denominations like £100,000,000, they’re kept in banks and never enter circulation. I recall it’s something to do with issuing Scottish and Northern Ireland notes, those ones that are still pounds but are issued by places other than the Bank of England.
It probably annoys shop keepers as it blows away all their change.
£50 notes were for rich people to do crime with. If you weren't a rich person doing crime, you didn't need them.
Now rich people crime can be done online, they're even less necessary.
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