text: This baby can survive a 1400 revolutions per minute spin in the washing machine. You could say it makes for easy laundering.
  The Bank of England says it is cleaner and more secure than the cotton paper notes which have been used for the past 100 years.
  But we're a conservative lot in Northern Ireland: Perhaps we like our lucre filthy.
  For people in Northern Ireland, plastic fivers are nothing new. To celebrate the Millennium,  the old Northern Bank (now Danske) introduced the slippery clean fiver to local pockets in 2000. Two million of the notes were issued in October 1999.
  It did not fold quite the same into the back trouser pocket. But then again, neither did it attract the dirt from fingers fumbling in a greasy till or handbag to quite the same degree.
  That was  more than 16 years ago, and the trusty paper notes are still going strong. If you get a polymer note these days in Belfast, look up and you might see a pig soar past city hall.
  In 2005, the Northern Bank reprinted all of its bank notes shortly after £26.5m was stolen from its head office by the IRA.
  The plastic fiver was the only type of note not replaced.
  Paul Black from Danske Bank said that when the plastic fiver was introduced, it meant Northern Bank was "away ahead of its time."
  "We wanted to be innovative and be first on the market. Over time that was eroded a little, because other banks did not follow. At the time it was quite popular," he said.
  "It did create a real buzz. People found it unusual. They compared it to monopoly money."
  Down the backs of which sofas do the lost plastic fivers reside?
  Who knows? But on a well-known internet auction site one seller is asking for £125 for the plastic note.
  The governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, said the new note would be cleaner, safer and stronger.
  "The use of polymer means it can better withstand being repeatedly folded into wallets or scrunched up inside pockets, and can also survive a spin in the washing machine," he said.
  While the notes are not indestructible, they are expected to last an average of five years compared to the current fiver's two years.
  New security features - such as a transparent window - will make the note harder to counterfeit.
target: It's a big day for plastic money in England and Wales: The new £5 polymer note has been released by the Bank of England.