Good question! The plastic polymer notes are tougher than a cockroach in a nuclear winter. They survive the washing machine, they don’t turn into a crumbly mess in your back pocket, and they’re harder to counterfeit.
Also, they feel satisfyingly crisp. You can flick a plastic fifty and it makes a sound like a tiny, wealthy frog croaking. Try that with a paper note—you just sound sad.
Plus, the new £50 note honors Alan Turing, the WWII codebreaker and father of computer science. So now you can pay for groceries while carrying a tribute to a genius. Very classy.
