New 'Durable' £5 Note Can Be Wiped Clean With A Pencil Eraser

A serious flaw has been exposed in the new polymer £5 note -- it can be wiped almost totally clean of ink using a simple pencil eraser. The new notes were billed as being hi-tech and durable and were said to last twice as long as the old fiver. But a print centre manager who experimented with one of the bills found it can be wiped almost totally clean of ink with an eraser. Stuart McLean put the bill to the test using the type of rubber normally deployed to eradicate pencil marks. To his surprise the everyday item was capable of scoring off large parts of the note's blue dye, leaving only security numbers and the see-through hologram behind.