The final design for the new Bank of England £5 note entering circulation in September is to be revealed today.
The note will feature the image of Sir Winston Churchill and will be made of plastic rather than cotton paper. The bank says the thin and flexible plastic banknotes will be cleaner, more durable and harder to counterfeit than the current paper notes.
But there is a danger, it admits, that they may initially be prone to sticking together. The use of thin, see-through polymer is a first for the Bank of England, but plastic banknotes are already in use in Scotland as well as other countries including Australia and Canada. They have also been used in Northern Ireland.
At an event at Sir Winston's birthplace of Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, the bank will also release advice to businesses about dealing with the new polymer notes, which are 15 per cent smaller than the current notes.
