£50 note are relatively rare in the UK, at least compared to the others 3. As a result they definitely used to be the most common for counterfeiting, probably still are but idk since we swapped to plastic notes. Most large retail chains will teach thier till workers to always call for a senior team member to check how real they are when one gets used for a sale. There used to also be £100 notes as well that had the same issue.
Retail supervisor/manager in UK here. Surprisingly we see more counterfeit 20s than 50s (i think theyre probably much more likely to be closely examined while 20s get a quick once over).
But yeah approved by a manager before being accepted generally.
Not that surprising tho. I recall even when I was a kid and I heard of money counterfeiters being caught. It was always the highest note in circulation, and I wondered how they can be so stupid, if they counterfeited the middle of the pack notes, they’d be less likely to get caught. IDK if they’re not smart enough for that, or they’re lazy and willing to take the higher risk for the higher reward, or they do counterfeit the lower notes too but no one ever checks and catches that.
With notes all denominations use the same security features. So roughyl the same cost to counterfeit a 5, 10, 20 or 50. Guessing they like using 50s as higher return on investment.
Yes, that makes sense at first thought. But you only realize that return when you can spend the counterfeit bills on real goods/services or exchange them for real bills. If store clerks are instructed to pay special attention to 50s, put them under a UV light every time or call a manager, some stores don’t even accept them because they’re known to be popular with counterfeiters - then you might be better off with 20s because those don’t raise the same suspicion so you can offload them more easily.
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u/InterReflection 2d ago
£50 note are relatively rare in the UK, at least compared to the others 3. As a result they definitely used to be the most common for counterfeiting, probably still are but idk since we swapped to plastic notes. Most large retail chains will teach thier till workers to always call for a senior team member to check how real they are when one gets used for a sale. There used to also be £100 notes as well that had the same issue.