A WARNING has been issued to check the bank notes in your wallet.

Wrexham Town Inspector Luke Hughes told the Leader how there have been reports of fake notes circulating amongst businesses in the town in the last few days.

He said: "We have seen £50 notes presented in the town centre and also £20 notes in some of the smaller shops in the outlying villages.

"The quality appears quite convincing and sadly some retailers have been deceived into giving change for small purchases."

Insp Hughes adds that some of these notes have been seized - along with CCTV of the customers using them.

He continued: "Enquires are ongoing to collate incidents, however I would appeal for extra vigilance."

The local officer advised that, where possible, people make use of contactless payment methods as this generally more secure and also COVID safe.

He adds that people should be careful if selling items using classified advertisements on social media and be suspicious of any large denomination notes.

Key security features on current £50 banknotes

The Bank of England says that there are two key security features to help confirm that your paper £50 notes are genuine.

Motion thread image change:

  • Tilt the note up and down or side to side.
  • Check the images change between a '£' symbol and the number '50'.

Bright '£50' in the watermark:

  • Hold the note up to the light. Check there is a bright ‘£50’ at the top of the Queen’s portrait.

What about the newer plastic banknotes?

There are separate features for £5, £10 and £20 notes since they turned into plastic/polymer.

These features will translate over the to polymer £50 - which the Bank of England will release nationally on June 23, 2021.

The Leader:

All of the UK's polymer banknotes [Image © Bank of England].

These features include:

Hologram:

  • Tilt the note from side to side. Check the words change between 'Fifty' and 'Pounds'.

See-through windows:

  • Look at the metallic image over the main window. Check the foil is gold and green on the front of the note and silver on the back.
  • Within the two gold foil squares on the front of the note, the image changes between '50' and a '£' symbol when the note is tilted.
  • Look for a second, smaller window in the bottom corner of the note.

More security features can be found listed online at https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes.

What do I do if I get a counterfeit banknote?

According to the Bank of England, counterfeit notes are both rare and worthless.

A spokesman said: "We cannot reimburse you for counterfeit banknotes. If you suspect that you have a counterfeit banknote, please take it to your nearest police station.

"The police should fill out an NCO-1 form and provide you with a receipt and incident number. The suspect notes will be sent to the National Crime Agency and if counterfeit to the Bank of England for further examination.

If you have information about someone making, selling or using counterfeit banknotes, please contact the police using 101 or phone Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.