And, more importantly, for the Bank of England. Perhaps that’s why the old jokes about printing money never seem to go away. 

However, the new polymer £5 has heralded a new era of even-trickier-to-copy security features, including a transparent window and multiple holograms. 

Another ‘special’ feature of the new note, as revealed to the Daily Mail by Newsquest print centre manager Stuart McLean, is that it’s possible to rub off the ink using a pencil eraser. Possible, but very messy and not very easy. And also, well, pointless.

As the Bank of England pointed out, it would consider this to be “excessive and abnormal ink wear”. 

The good news is, as long as the security features were still intact, an ‘erased’ note would still be considered legal tender. 

Perhaps Stuart’s next challenge should be attempting to pay for some shopping with one.