Got an old £20 note? Five more days to spend it!

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Traditional £20 paper notes featuring Adam Smith and £50 notes featuring Matthew Boulton and James Watt are no longer legal tender

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Finding an old £20 note crumpled up at the bottom of your pocket used to be a cause for outright celebration, but starting next month you could be struggling to spend it.

Both the traditional £20 paper note with an image of economist Adam Smith and the £50 paper note with a photo of engineers Matthew Boulton and James Watt will no longer be legal tender after Friday.

The paper money has been replaced by new, stronger, polymer-based banknotes, which are more difficult to counterfeit.

Everything changes: the old paper money has been replaced by new, stronger, polymer-based banknotes, which are harder to counterfeit

Everything changes: the old paper money has been replaced by new, stronger, polymer-based banknotes, which are harder to counterfeit

The replacement £20 notes feature an image by artist JMW Turner and the £50 note shows scientist Alan Turing, who was involved in cracking the Enigma code that proved vital to the Allies in World War II.

But even this newer money could be replaced sooner than expected after King Charles III’s coronation, which is expected next June.

New currency with his profile will be introduced gradually to mark his reign.

It’s worth looking for the older £20 and £50 notes this week if you want to spend them in stores.

But don’t despair if you don’t stumble upon a note until after the deadline, as major banks and main post offices still have to exchange them for the new legal tender for a few more years – or allow you to deposit them into your bank account.

Fortunately, there is no need to panic, even if you discover an old banknote in a few decades.

The Bank of England promises that you can always exchange it for new currencies.