A petition against the new £5 note stated that tallow on the new polymer £5 notes which comes from animal fat was “unacceptable to millions of vegans, vegetarians, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and others in the UK”. A number of Sikhs and Hindus had also called for the notes to be banned from temples, where meat products are forbidden. Hindus believe cows are holy and sacred, and many do not wear shoes or carry bags made from the skin of cattle that has been slaughtered. Whereas practising Sikhs are strict vegetarians.
Well the petition hasn’t swayed the Bank of England with the new £5 notes and the forthcoming new £10 notes continuing to have traces of animal fat on them.
Ah, there’s good old Winston Churchill on one side.
Look at RE and PSHCE 
I think that the religious believers who think that this is unacceptable should, when every time they get this new £5 note they should exchange it for a old one or just exchange for £10 note
LikeLike
If it were going to cause such a problem as this then why did they make them this way in the first place?
LikeLike
The thing is I do agree with Alexander Jones but why can’t they be made from something else?
LikeLike
Similarly, in Australia, they have had polymer banknotes first starting in 1988 and have since released many newer series notes using similar polymer materials. Although the company that supplies the materials for many polymer banknotes in as many as 23 other countries, it is not known whether all of the other notes contain the same tallow used in the new British banknotes, however, it can be assumed it is likely that they use the same materials. However, unlike in Britain most of the countries have not had a widespread outcry due to the limited knowledge of their presence. This makes the situation for the Bank of England difficult as the release of plastic bank notes is not new however following the same method used by other countries Britain has been faced with a religious and moral opposition.
In my opinion however, although the choice to continue production of these banknotes is still controversial; the choice not to recall the notes is justified by the shear cost of discontinuing an entire form of currency as well as the fact that based on some calculations it is likely that the amount of tallow used in the production of all the new bank notes in circulation was harvested from less than one cow, with no knowledge on the means of the animals death to accuse of animal cruelty.
LikeLike
In my opinion if the religious believers and vegans don’t like the 5 pound note then they should simply exchange two notes for one of the old 10 pound notes (not containing animal fat). However, on a serious note, (no pun intended) there isn’t much that can be done because the Bank of England and The Royal Mint would never spend millions if not billions recalling all the notes, then remaking new ones just because of how it’s made.
LikeLike
Surely, if they are a large enough group of people that will be using this note the bank of England should have thought about the problem before creating these notes. As they have not done this in my opinion the notes should be recalled and a new one designed.
LikeLike