Who would you have?
In case it had passed you by, a new banknote is being issued for the first time today. The brand new Series F £50.00, featuring portraits of James Watt and Matthew Boulton, as well as the signature of the new Chief Cashier, start being dished out, and will eventually replace the Series E note that has the portrait of Sir John Houblon, first governor of the Bank of England. As it stands, we now have two of the latest Series F notes in circulation (this one and the £20.00 note that came out in 2007), while the other two are of the revised Series E. Before too much longer these two will also be replaced, and other noteworthy Britons will have their portraits forever linked with our currency. The practice of doing this is actually quite recent. It was the Series D issues that first had portraits of famous Britons on them, starting with the 1st Duke of Wellington on the £5.00 note in 1971. Since then, a total of 15 people have been so immortalised, including the two on the banknote issued today:
Series DSeries ESeries E (revised)Series F£1.00Sir Isaac Newton---£5.00Duke of WellingtonGeorge StephensonElizabeth Fry-£10.00Florence NightingaleCharles DickensCharles Darwin-£20.00William ShakespeareMichael FaradaySir Edward ElgarAdam Smith£50.00Sir Christopher WrenSir John Houblon-Matthew Boulton & James Watt
It's an interesting question as to who should be displayed on our banknotes. The Bank of England publishes a list of suggestions from the public, which it then selects from. It is quite extensive, running to five full pages. There are a handful of names on there who are still living, but the vast majority are from history. Having looked through, I've selected four that I think would be suitable, but that's just my own opinion:
No doubt other people will disagree and have other ideas. Well, there is a fairly big list to choose from. So who would you have from the list?
Series DSeries ESeries E (revised)Series F£1.00Sir Isaac Newton---£5.00Duke of WellingtonGeorge StephensonElizabeth Fry-£10.00Florence NightingaleCharles DickensCharles Darwin-£20.00William ShakespeareMichael FaradaySir Edward ElgarAdam Smith£50.00Sir Christopher WrenSir John Houblon-Matthew Boulton & James Watt
It's an interesting question as to who should be displayed on our banknotes. The Bank of England publishes a list of suggestions from the public, which it then selects from. It is quite extensive, running to five full pages. There are a handful of names on there who are still living, but the vast majority are from history. Having looked through, I've selected four that I think would be suitable, but that's just my own opinion:
No doubt other people will disagree and have other ideas. Well, there is a fairly big list to choose from. So who would you have from the list?