FAQ's
- Has the Bank considered producing a plastic banknote?
- How do I check whether a note is genuine or not?
- What should I do if I think I have been given a counterfeit note?
- What is on a banknote to help blind and partially sighted people identify the different denominations?
- Who decides who the historical figure should be on the back of a new note?
- What is money laundering?
- What metals are used to make coins?
- I am new to world banknote collecting. Where do I learn more about this exciting hobby and who can teach me how and what to start collecting especially if I am on a tight budget?
- What do we mean by electronic commerce?
- Why should one care about electronic commerce?
1. Has the Bank considered producing a plastic banknote?
The Bank continually looks at the security features of the notes and at methods of production and printing, including the use of plastic. We currently consider paper notes as good as any other type of banknote for use in the UK. The feel of the paper is one of the ways of checking whether a note is genuine or not.
2. How do I check whether a note is genuine or not?
Take your time to check your notes, particularly if light conditions are poor or you are handling a large number of notes.
Never rely on just one security feature; no counterfeit notes successfully copy all of the security features included in Bank of England notes.
3. What should I do if I think I have been given a counterfeit note?
If you think a note that you have is a counterfeit you must take it to the police as soon as you can. They will provide you with a receipt and send the counterfeit to the Bank of England for analysis. If the note is genuine reimbursement will be made in full.
A counterfeit note is completely worthless and it is a criminal offence to hold or to pass on a note which you know to be counterfeit.
Don’t get caught out by the counterfeiter; always check your banknotes.
4. What is on a banknote to help blind and partially sighted people identify the different denominations?
Each denomination is a different size; the greater the value the larger the note. So a £10 is larger than a £5 note and so on.
There is a densely coloured shape on the front of the note that is unique to each denomination – a turquoise circle on the £5, an orange diamond on the £10, a purple square on the old-style £20 and a red triangle on the £50 – and the £5, £10 and old-style £20 notes have large denomination numerals on the front of the note. The new-style £20 note does not require a separate recognition symbol because the denomination numeral is prominently displayed in the clear white area.
5. Who decides who the historical figure should be on the back of a new note?
It is the Governor of the Bank of England who makes the final decision. The Bank have celebrated the lives of eminent British personalities on the back of their notes since 1970. It is usual practice to consider a number of probable candidates all of whom have been selected because of their indisputable contribution to their particular field of work and about whom there exists sufficient material on which to base a banknote design.
Issue of Bank of England banknotes by value
March 2005 - February 2006
£5 £314,179,680
£10 £2,286,825,880
£20 £6,824,935,080
£50 £331,038,950
Total £9,756,979,590
Destruction of Bank of England banknotes by value
March 2005 - February 2006
£5 £485,053,095
£10 £2,798,081,830
£20 £5,295,361,440
£50 £302,815,150
Total £8,881,311,515
source http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/about/ 25/09/2007
6. What is money laundering?
It is the process by which criminally obtained money or other assets are exchanged for ‘clean’ money with no obvious link to its criminal origin.
7. What metals are used to make coins.
Visit Tony Clayton's Metals Used in Coins:
http://www.tclayton.demon.co.uk/metal.html
8. I am new to world banknote collecting. Where do I learn more about this exciting hobby and who can teach me how and what to start collecting especially if I am on a tight budget?
Visit the following 'Bank note collecting' page:
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~wwcoins/banknotecollecting.htm
This site covers a lot of stuff about coins:
http://www.coinresource.com/guide/faq1.htm
This covers LETS http://www.gmlets.u-net.com/faq.html
9. What do we mean by electronic commerce?
Visit the 'Centre for Reseach in Electronic Commerce' 25/09/2007 11:39:38
The term "electronic commerce" has evolved from its meager notion of electronic shopping to mean all aspects of business and market processes enabled by the Internet and the World Wide Web technologies.
Electronic Commerce As Online Selling. Narrowly defined, electronic commerce means doing business online or selling and buying products and services through Web storefronts. Products being traded may be physical products such as used cars or services (e.g. arranging trips, online medical consultation, and remote education). Increasingly, they include digital products such as news, audio and video, database, software and all types of knowledge-based products. It appears then electronic commerce is similar to catalog shopping or home shopping on cable TV.
Electronic Commerce As a Market. Electronic commerce is not limited to buying and selling products online. For example, a neighborhood store can open a Web store and find the world in its door step. But, along with customers, it will also find its suppliers, accountants, payment services, government agencies and competitors online. This online or digital partners demand changes in the way we do business from production to consumption, and they will affect companies who might think they are not part of electronic commerce. Along with online selling, electronic commerce will lead to significant changes in the way products are customized, distributed and exchanged and the way consumers search and bargain for products and services and consume them.
In short, the electronic commerce revolution is in its effects on processes. Process-oriented definition of electronic commerce offers a broader view of what electronic commerce is. Within-business processes (e.g. manufacturing, inventorying, corporate financial management, operation), and business-to-business processes (e.g. supply-chain management, bidding) are affected by the same technology and network as are business-to-consumer processes. Even government functions, education, social and political processes undergo changes.
10. Why should one care about electronic commerce?
Participants in the electronic marketplace are not limited to so-called digital product companies such as those in publishing, software, entertainment and information industries. The Digital Age and the digital revolution affect all of us by virtue of their process innovations. At the least, through WebTV and digital television, the way we watch TV news and entertainment programs will change. Changes in telecommunication will affect the way we receive information, product announcements, orders, etc. As phones, fax machines, copiers, PCs and printers have become essential ingredients in doing business, so will be emails, Web sites, and integrated digital communications and computing.
While today's office business machines are not integrated (e.g. faxed orders have to be typed in on computers), the much talked about "convergence" will drive all these equipment into one digital platform, whether it be a computer connected to the Internet and intranets, or a new kind of device capable of interacting with other devices, because that device will prove to be more efficient and productive. (Although, will it be easier to use? That depends on how developers and industry leaders promote interoperability and standardization.)
Even seemingly-mundane book stores face different challenges in the electronic marketplace by virtue of having digital processes in their business operations. The case of Amazon.com vs. Barnes & Noble shows that the very definition of "stores" has to be re-evaluated. This also touches upon the issue of taxable nexus and sales tax collection on the Internet.
Distributing books require numerous local outlets (local book stores) to provide convenient access to customers. At the same time, mail order distribution has been used for many decades through various book clubs. Taking this direction into the Internet, Amazon.com has become the leading online bookstore, billing itself as the "largest bookstore" on earth not by opening numerous branch stores but via the Internet. The "biggest bookstore", Barnes & Noble with a towering share of revenues and physical book stores, has been forced to respond to Amazon.com's challenge by opening its own Web store as well as by bringing a law suit against its challenger. (See insert: The Fight Between the Biggest and the Largest) What are competitive strategies of these two book stores? Will any business selling physical products be facing a similar competition?
