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Mutilated money - What to do if money gets damaged

Submitted by Richard

If your puppy chews up a £20 note or you wash and tumble dry one left in your pocket, your bank should redeem it if it's in fairly good shape. Even if it's badly mauled, take all the scraps along to your bank. If the note can be identified (if the bits you have show the number) or if you have more than half of the note, the bank will probably replace it immediately. You will have to sign a declaration to say what happened.

If a wad of notes gets burned or mutilated, wrap the remains in cotton or polystyrene chips so that they don't disintegrate further, and take them to your bank. They will send them to the Bank of England, where specialists will try to identify the numbers. They will test the paper and look for the silver strips.

If you have a few corroded or charred coins, take them to a bank for redemption. The bank will send them to the mint for assessment and cleaning.

This tip has 9 comments shown below

Thank You

Comments by: Abubakar from London Mar 06, 2011

Thank You Finally something that will acculally help me and for england really thanks

Replacing damaged UK notes

Comments by: cabriolaurie from Cornwall, UK Nov 13, 2010

I, too, took a long time finding a UK solution since my dog has chewed up a £10 note. I always understood you needed both numbers and I only have one but most of the note is intact. I hope your advice works in my bank but can't find out until next week. I also have a couple of tins of pre-decimal coins, can I do anything useful with those?

Great Post

Comments by: PHammond from West Sussex, U.K. May 07, 2010

Finally somebody has put something to help Britains. I've had to sift through about ten guides for U.S. currency.

PLEASE READ THIS SITE

Comments by: Tina from Jacksonville, Fl Jun 07, 2009

This is for POUNDS (WHICH IS ENGLISH MONEY) if you READ this website it is for the bank of ENGLAND!! Most of you that posted live in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!! No cream cakes for you!!!

Wrong!

Comments by: Carrie from Georgia Apr 27, 2009

You should be able to take ANY currency to any financial institution if a bank / credit union is federally insured they HAVE to take mutilated currency as long as you can identify the value of the currency / coin. If it is not easily identified then the bank should still take the money from the member / customer and send it to the federal reserve and they will process it and determine the value, then they can refund the dollar amount to the member.

Ripped money

Comments by: C,T.M. from USA Mar 13, 2009

The dogs chewed 2 10 dollar bills the bank would not take it.The Bank said call the Dept of Treasury.

Washed Money

Comments by: Ivonne from Miami, FL USA Feb 12, 2009

That's what I thought.
I have a 5.00 bill and three singles that were washed and dried. The five dollar bill tore into two pieces but the serial numbers were still visible and the singles looked really worn out but the serial numbers are still good and the amount of the bills were still ok.
I took to Washington Mutual Bank and they said that they could not exchange it because of its damage. They recommended sending it to the U.S. Mint department.

Very useful comments.

Comments by: Tricia from UK Oct 01, 2008

This tip was spot on. It told me exactly what I wanted to know. Thank you.

Damage money

Comments by: Gail Crady from Tampa, Fl. Mar 25, 2008

I tried to take a 20.00 and 5 one dollar bills to my credit union and then tried my bank also both places said it had to be aleast 3/4 of the bill and said that the goverment web site said so. I told them that I had just looked at the gov. web site and it did not say that, but both credit union and my bank would not take the bills.I had 1/2 of each bill and you could tell what they were, I am going to have to mail them in now.