The first plastic £5 notes go into circulation in England and Wales today with a warning to shoppers that they may stick together.
It means that customers could end up handing over too much money at the tills.
The polymer fivers, which bear a portrait of Sir Winston Churchill, are 15 per cent smaller than the paper notes they are replacing and are said to last 2.5 times longer.
Because they are plastic, they are difficult to tear and can survive being put through the washing machine and other spills.
A smaller plastic £10 note featuring novelist Jane Austen will go into circulation next summer and a £20 polymer note, featuring the artist JMW Turner, is due by 2020.
The warning about the notes being hard to separate has been issued by the Bank of England. It said: ‘Brand new polymer notes can sometimes stick together, but this effect is short-lived once in use.’
Adapting bank cash machines, rail ticket machines, self-service tills and other vending machines to cope with them is costing up to £236million, say consultants CMS Payment. Not all machines are ready to take the new notes, which have extra security features, making them harder to counterfeit.
Cash revolution: The new fiver boasts of being practically indestructible and can even cope with going through the washing machine
Daily Mail journalist Holly Black went to see the new £5 notes being printed - and they will be out on the street for the first time today
Chief Cashier of the Bank of England, Victoria Cleland, inspects the new fiver - which are said to be almost indestructable
Because they are plastic, they are difficult to tear and can survive being put through the washing machine and other spills
