£50 billion of bank notes "missing" - WTAF?

[BoobsOnTheMoon]

Apparently equal to 3/4 of all UK banknotes

Where the fuck is it all? I guess drug trade etc but that is a LOT of money. Wouldn't it take about 100 years to count it all???

@ScrapThatThen

I once helped an elderly lady into hospital and she confided that the cushion she sat on on her chair contained £10000. The ward safe had to be pressed into service for that one.

FIL was the same, took his cushion into hospital, then told BIL what was in it. We were all worried it would get chucked out as it was filthy.

Turned out he had lots dotted about the house. Nothing could be chucked when he died, until pockets etc had been checked.

i probably have at least £100,...maybe more...just in fancy £2/£1/50pence coins

I have little piles in odd corners waiting to go into the super safe place Make up bag in drawer, don't tell anyone

I hide them cos dh doesn't care about the lovely fancy pennies and spends them. I had a Kew Gardens 50pence once.

@Sarahplane

How do they decide its missing?

They know how much they print they know how much is being banked through trade each day all over the world thus they know what is not circulating

Does this mean there is only £250 per person if everyone wanted to withdraw savings? I know many people have none, but that's still not a lot of cash.

What's that, the equivalent of about £800 each?

We’ve probably got 2k in cash

Maybe less...maybe between 1.5 and 2 as a lot of cash has gone now due to covid

That’s between 4 of us

Does that mean missing for ages or just not accountable at the time of stocktaking? A quick check and we probably have about £800 in the house between us all. I'm doing shopping for my mum these days and she pays me cash after I've paid on my card, and I never get round to putting it into the bank, also I like to have a float in the cash tin for £200 for window cleaner/tips/sudden emergencies. Probably a fairly common situation before you even think about people putting it under their mattresses!

Could it be people taking it out pre-lockdown and then just not spending it as more card use. Teenagers seem to use their phones these days. I have no idea how that works
Even the tube, people use their phones. I probably have about a thousand in cash at home, usually use it for holiday spending but no holiday for me this year so I still have it

I think lots of people keep some cash at home in case of emergencies. My elderly neighbour used to have a drawer full of bank notes, she didn't trust banks.

DH was clearing out boxes in the garage and found a sandwich bag with £98 in it in old notes and old £1 coins a few weeks ago.

Thing is, we've NEVER used sandwich bags. The box he found it in was one of our junk boxes that just got abandoned after the house move 5 years ago. We were really skint back then and would have never managed to accumulate nearly £100 without spending it.

Neither of us had any idea where it came from!

DH took it up to the bank and they happily paid it in even though it was in old coins and notes.