Crumpled , grubby bank notes could soon be on their way out in the UK , according to the Bank of England . By 2016 , the UK will be switching its £5 and £10 bills to polymer bank notes as they 're more durable , harder to forge , and cheaper in the long run . For over 300 years the Bank of England has been printing bank notes , and despite the growth of credit and debit cards and online transactions , there 's more cash in circulation than ever before . The challenge is how to keep ahead of the counterfeiters , and this has prompted the Bank of England to follow recent technology in converting some of its notes . `` The key part of a bank note is ' I promise to pay ' and people need to believe the bank will always promise to pay , but they also need to believe the notes they hold are genuine notes and not counterfeited notes , '' explained Victoria Cleland , chief cashier of the Bank of England , to CNN 's Nina Dos Santos in an interview . The UK will be one of just a handful of currencies produced this way . Already , Australia and Canada have been moving away from paper to polymer in order to crack the counterfeiters and ensure the notes last longer . A key security feature of the polymer note is a window you can look through . Another feature of the plastic note is that it 's quite thin and flexible , and still includes the raised print which people seem to prefer , said Cleland . `` One of the advantages of polymer notes is that they will hold their shape a lot more and they 're more durable , '' Cleland explained to Dos Santos , showing CNN the slick new , washing-machine proof notes being printed . While the process of converting traditional notes to a plastic form will be an expensive endeavor , the Bank believes a polymer note will last at least two and a half times longer than paper . The £5 note will get the first facelift in 2016 , followed by the £10 note . Winston Churchill will become the face on the £5 note , while Jane Austen will grace the £10 note . A polymer note is more expensive to produce initially and there will be some transitional costs , but Cleland said that over a 10 year period of switching the £5 and £10 notes , the Bank will save at least £100 million , a lot of it because of the increased longevity of the notes . And it 's not just British notes which are getting a makeover . The Royal Mint has proposed a new design for the one pound coin , with state of the art anti-counterfeiting technology embedded into the metal which they claim will make it the most secure coin in the world . The Royal Mint has been casting coins for over eleven hundred years , producing coins and medals for up to 60 countries and supplying about 15 % of global demand . The £1 pound coin has been used for 30 years but has become increasingly vulnerable to counterfeiters , with 45 million coins -- or 3 % of the coins in circulation -- now being forgeries . `` The current electromagnetic signature in a coin can wear over time making forgeries harder to detect , '' said Andrew Mills , director of circulating coin sales at the Royal Mint . The new £1 coin , which is set to be introduced in 2017 , will have the ISIS Technology -- Integrated Secure Identification Systems -- which has been used in bank notes for 20 years . This will enable enhanced security throughout the cash cycle , said Mills , protecting the public , vending machine operators , retailers and the banking system . With all the talk of a cashless society , it seems that cash is here to stay , albeit in its new plastic format .
By 2016 , the Bank of England will be printing polymer £5 and £10 notes . The plastic notes will help fight counterfeiters and will be more durable . Title: Why do we have a " right to privacy "?