Check you wallet carefully for £20 notes as the old style £20 note will no longer be considered legal tender as of June 30 meaning shops will no longer accept them and it is up to banks whether they are swapped for the newer notes or not.

From 1st July, £20 noted with the image of Adam Smith, the Scottish economist, will be the only £20 notes considered legal tender. These notes were first put into circulation in March 2007.

Around 20% of all £20 notes currently in circulation are thought to be the old version – that’s around 150 million notes worth £3 billion. These older £20 notes were brought into circulation in 1999, replacing a design with the physicist Michael Faraday, which in turn replaced a design featuring playwright William Shakespeare.

If you do find yourself in possession of an old note after June 1st and your bank refuses to swap it, the Bank of England has said that it will honour the face value of the note, even with older notes.

All the old notes collected will be sent to official government incinerators where they will be burned. Alongside the old £20 notes, there may also be damaged notes and illegal tobacco also being burnt. The incinerators will generate thermoelectric power from this burning.

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