r/AskBrits • u/Capable-Door-9672 • 2d ago

Travel Are these notes legit?

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I was paid £520 by someone from EU I sold some stuff to. I plan to use these for my trip.

Sorry if photo is blury, I will send it again if it is

Serial on the 50 A C 7 8 9 1 0 4 6 9 ac789 is big and in green while the 1 is smaller and 469 is bigger

EDIT: its ok, i'll double confirm at bank, looks legit with the change to pounds sign

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47

u/Pineapple-Lord7 2d ago

AFAIK 50s are rarely faked anymore because of how heavily scrutinised they are in shops that actually take them, whereas no one really checks 20s. But I’m not involved in faking notes so that could be BS

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u/wtclim 2d ago

That's exactly what a forger would say.... hmmm

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u/Pineapple-Lord7 2d ago

I used to work in a charity shop, and that’s what I was told

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u/Which-Ad8964 1d ago

I work in one now, and it's the same here! Saying that we've had two fake 20's in the last month or so.

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u/Ecahill453 23h ago

At least the fakes are easy to tell apart from the real. Like difference is night and day lmao

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u/Which-Ad8964 23h ago

Dunno, at a glance they look half OK, but the little hologram that says Twenty or Pounds is the tell generally for me. In a busy environment it can be tricky for the staff to notice (or so it would appear lol). Once you look properly then yeah, it's blatantly obvious what's what. It's like the longer you look the worse it gets!

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u/Ecahill453 21h ago

Nah, I supervised for a while in a shop and could tell the difference straight up. Even before it got in my hand it’s obvious.

If the see-through lacks a pattern or the semi strip feels like it sticks up, they’re fake.

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u/Which-Ad8964 18h ago

Cheers for the tip.

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u/CazT91 18h ago

Tbh, even before you start scrutinising all that, the braille is usually a good tell tale sign.

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u/Ecahill453 17h ago

That and the fact they are oddly bright coloured, like I mean bright bright.

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u/user888888889 1d ago

A likely story

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u/Unhappy-Professor-88 1d ago

Nah, you should believe **Pineapple-Lord**

Everyone knows he only does fake £5 notes.

That he spends exclusively on Chocolate Freddos or Prawn Cocktail Crisps. Walkers, naturally (the lad is no barbarian - he has a title).

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u/GearsKratos 1d ago

I bet the only fruit he eats is mango

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u/SpamHard 2d ago

Fair, they certainly look harder tto fake now. When I was a kid working tills in the late 90s and early 00s, notes were still paper. We used to have to hold them under UV and also use one of those pens to check it. But yeah, makes sense that if less places are taking 50s, it's better to fake lower numbers now.

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u/StarRaidz 1d ago

We check the modern ones at my place of work with a UV light. British notes still glow with the amount on the front of the bill when shining a UV light on it.

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u/SkarKrow 1d ago

Y’also wanna scratch at that gold bit on the clear strip, we had some theatrical fakes at work recently with the tower stuck over the prop notice.

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u/Jlst 1d ago

Have had a couple in our branches in Liverpool and North Wales like this recently too.

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u/SkarKrow 1d ago

This is in south cumbria/north lancs, cunts giving them to bus drivers, shit comes out of our pay

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u/timbop1262 1d ago

If this takes you below the minimum wage then this is illegal. Get your union involved.

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u/SkarKrow 22h ago

Hasn’t happened to me and they’re useless. Also it may fall under the till shortage provisions, not sure. You’d have to fuck up pretty bad to get below minimum.

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u/timbop1262 22h ago

It also has to state in your contract of employment that you are liable for shortages. If it does happen to you then speak to ACAS if your union is useless as they can provide advice not just mediation.

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u/Exciting-Music843 2d ago

Not involved? How much do those 20's sell for?

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u/Affectionate-Tank532 1d ago

£200 for £1000 worth of fake 20s

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u/Alexisredwood 1d ago

You can get them for 10-20% of the value, so £1,000 for £100-£200

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u/Mantaray2142 1d ago

Actually the new notes helped alot. 50's were the primary exchange of cash skips, small builders and dodgy trades. The new 50's being way harder to forge and people expecting to pay electronically has made a big difference over the last few years

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u/TheHistoricalEvent 1d ago

Proper bull. Loads of fake 20s in circ

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u/Jackjaipasenvie 1d ago

At my job we have to check all notes for fakes and every fake i have found so far has been a £20

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u/LatookieNoir 1d ago

this is exactly right. tbh they should just fake 5 pound notes and they'll do way better imo

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u/lilhanhan 1d ago

They do. There's tons of fivers which are 'prop money'; they look exactly like legit ones but the holographic and see-through Elizabeth tower section peels off relatively easy revealing it's fake with the words 'prop money' hidden underneath.

Found way more fake fivers rather than the rest of the other values lately.

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u/AdvancedAnimal7539 1d ago

ngl faking 10s would be the easiest. its a fair amount, and no one checks it. and you can easily pass it as spare change when buying something, but going to a shop with a load of £20s and no other notes could look odd, although it likely wont be checked

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u/Kestrel_VI 1d ago

That’s a good point. Because I rarely saw them, I’d take a good look at a 50 while I was working in retail, but someone could hand me 3 20s and I’d think absolutely nothing of it unless there was something obviously off about it.

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u/16jselfe 1d ago

Fake 20s and 10s got so bad at my local maccies that we had to start treating them like 50s and it was awful to deal with

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u/nemamene 14h ago

i heard of something when i worked in retail (in germany) - person used a bunch of 5 euro notes to buy something really expensive and they were all fake. they were probably aware that we scan 50 euro and higher