A new exhibition called ‘The Future of Money’ is set to open at the Bank of England Museum in London this Wednesday. Visitors will get a sneak peek at the new banknotes featuring King Charles, which will be available in £5, £10, £20 and £50 denominations before they officially enter circulation on June 5, 2024.
The exhibition will showcase the evolution of money, from a Roman gold bar to Bitcoin, including contactless payment innovations and wearable devices.
It will also feature a Sibstar pre-paid debit card designed to help people with dementia maintain financial independence, Chinese lucky red envelopes, and items made from recycled banknotes and gold. The role of artificial intelligence in banking and ways to make banking more sustainable and ethical will also be explored.
Recent years have seen a sharp decline in the usage of cash due to a boom in available methods for payments. However, many folks still prefer dealing with hard cash. As pulled from Financial Conduct Authority’s Financial Lives 2022 survey, it’s revealed that about 3.1 million grown-ups (6%) opted for using cash over anything else for their purchases throughout the period of May 2022.
An exhibition unveils the workings behind the Bank of England’s strategic moves to secure an ample quantity of banknotes for the nation’s economy.
Jennifer Adam, who curates at the Bank of England Museum shed light on the matter: “The way we handle money has completely transformed in the last century, from gold and silver coins to the tap of a smartphone.”
“Our new exhibition will show how money is continuing to change, and what this means for people of all ages.”
“As youngsters, we start grasping the concept of money through actual cash be it through playing shop or acting as a Monopoly banker. But the question remains, how do we get savvy on dealing with digital money? If you’re scouting for information on understanding cash and getting a grip on the economy, there’s no place better than right here.”
Ms Adam also shared with PA news agency how they craft the exhibition around queries posed by the interested public, received via several methods – visitor comment cards at the museum, through letters and even outreach events.
She further elaborated: “We begin by looking at the notion of money, what is money, in terms of accounts, a store of value, a method of exchange. Because these qualities affect what we use as currency and how we adapt technology as currency as well.”
Ms Adam mentioned that the show also explores “more cultural issues, about how we learn about money, the role of cash, money in traditions, people’s experiences as well”.
“And at the centre of it all is the notion of choice, is that people should have a choice of secure and reliable ways to pay, whether it’s cash or whether it’s a digital payment that you prefer to use,” she said.
You can visit the exhibition until September 2025 and it’s totally free to get in. The Bank of England and the Treasury started thinking about a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in February last year.
They haven’t decided if they will really make this new kind of money yet. They’ll think about it more and make a choice around 2025 or later, after they’ve finished planning it out.
