Changing bank note designs

Thanks for the links. I’ve just voted for brown hare, pine marten, barn owl, curlew, buff tailed bumblebee and marsh fritillary butterfly.

I doubt if any of my picks will make it, bees, marsh fritialry butterflies, curlew, barn owl, red fox and brown hares probably aren't everybodies choice.

What about other people, what did you choose?

I love seeing animals on money.  Animals are Sweet Peas.

I just voted and what a faff! Three pages to get to choose, then I find two icons have appeared on my home page, why does every site give you icons, it's unlikely I'm going to want to vote again even if I could

Just voted! 

Did anyone vote yet on their favourite design? 

Short list being

Mammals:

• Bottle nose Dolphin
• Brown hare 
• Hedgehog
• Grey seal 
• Pine Martin
• Fox 

Birds: 

• Puffin
• Barn owl
• Kingfisher
• Curlew
• Greater spotted woodpecker
• White tail eagle 

Amphibians, reptiles, fish:

• Salmon
• Basking shark 
• Buff tailed bumblebee
• Common frog
• Emperor dragonfly
• Marsh fritillary butterfly

Article

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgzrpe6mzjo

And the voting page

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/help-us-design-our-next-series-of-banknotes

I love badgers, foxes and all our other wild mammals, and I find any cruelty towards them abhorrent.

One giant badger or 100 smaller ones?

lostmyway said:

"got a monkey's worth of puffins?"

That made me laugh in my coffee mug! 

Which, at 05:30 hrs ...I class as a good start to my day.

"fricandeau de veau", in 19th century London slang, was referred to as "hedgehog" (we can probably blame Augustus Septimus Mayhew's "Paved with Gold" (1858, the romance and reality of the London street), a novel about the 19th century underclass, for that mockery).

The Bank's March announcement? Wildlife won the vote, hands-down. No final picks yet (second consult coming), but hedgehog's tipped as favourite - spiky little icon, endangered, perfect for a tenner or twenty. Imagine: "Give us a hedgehog" instead of "a score." Or "tiggy-wiggy" for five quid? "Hotchiwitchi" for fifty? It'd be chaos at the market - blokes muttering "got a monkey's worth of puffins?" while the stallholder nods like it's normal.

Rhyming slang's survived worse - quid's from "quid pro quo," pony from horse on old notes. If BoE goes full nature, we'll adapt: "bag o' badgers" for grand, "lady Godiva's cousin" for fiver (the diver's hedgehog mate?).

It'll evolve. Tradition's tough - people still say "ton" for hundred even if no one's seen a ton-weight in ages. But yes, "fricandeau de veau" for veal? That's next-level posh - might stick if the notes look tasty.

I was pondering ...over time, what might all this impact be upon London Cockney rhyming slang for monetary denominations.  There are traditionally a large number of them - below are just a few examples:

One - Quid, Nicker

Five - Lady; Deep Sea Diver

Ten - Ayrton

Fifteen - Commodore

Twenty - Score; Bobby Moore

Twenty-five - Pony

Fifty - Bullseye

One Hundred - Ton

Five Hundred - Monkey

One Thousand - Grand; Bag

Will we need to start muttering about well loved nicknames for UK wildlife - I am envisaging bidding to pay things like "tiggy", or "hotchiwitchi", or "fricandeau de veau" ...for something purchased in a market place if the Summer's consultation sees a hedgehog in pride of place on one of the new denomination notes!

www.bankofengland.co.uk/.../wildlife-feature-on-next-series-of-banknotes

I would like to see a very small image of Farage superimposed by a very large badger.

Agreed!

(I’m sorry, it’s a joke for those of you that don’t know me well. Please don’t hurt me lol)

Since y’all can’t come to an agreement on what to put on them, may I suggest something we can all agree is really important to the UK?

Donald Trump.

I rarely have banknotes as I use a debit card for most purchases. But, no, I don't mind. A few more inventors and creatives would be interesting, but also definitely British wildlife and wildflowers. Or ordinary people, who've done good things for the community - we've never had anything like that, as far as I can remember.

It is daft, but thn he, like many far right politicians are very thin skinned and seem to see any changes as a threat, except the ones he wants to make of course.

Given reforms wish to roll back the clock on so many things, maybe he's afraid that if people start liking badgers and other wildlife even more than they do now, they won't want to bring back badger baiting and other blood sports.

Yes, that's a proper little treasure - your 1951 Irish shilling with the bull on one side and the harp on the other. Spot on about the size: it's 23.6 mm across, basically identical to the current UK 10p (24.5 mm), so yeah, it'd feel right in your pocket even now.

As for those river gods on the old notes... the rumour's fun, but it's mostly myth - the faces were based on Dublin's Custom House keystones, and yeah, the higher the note, the more "uplifted" they look. Like the 10-shilling one: stern, almost grumpy.

While the big £50? Well, he's grinning like he's won the lotto - cheeky sod.

Irish coins, pre-Euro, had animals on them on one side, the other had a harp. The 1 shilling (5p) had a bull and a florin (10p) a salmon. Early Irish paper money had a personification of the rivers of Ireland, in the form of a Greco-Roman river god taken from a sculpted keystone on an arch in Dublin. Rumour has it that the expression on the river god's face went from dour to laughing as the value of the note increased (from 10 shilling to £50).

I have a 1951 Irish shilling, bull, coin I got a while ago in change, I think it is the same size as a modern UK 10p.

Yeah, the banknote drama's been wild - every decade it's like "who's the new face?" and suddenly everyone's an expert on symbolism. Wildlife winning the vote? Honestly, makes sense. Humans get boring after a while - Churchill's great, but a badger? That's got charm. And yeah, Farage calling it "woke nonsense" is peak predictable - he'd probably say a fox is too "cunning" or something.

Churchill's granddaughter being chill about it? That's classy. No drama, just "it was always temporary." The "no women" complaint... lol, you're right - female badgers, otters, or whatever don't count to them because they can't be "woke" enough.

I'd love an oak tree too - those things are legends: ancient, tough, home to everything from bugs to birds. Put one on the £20, maybe with a little acorn detail. Red squirrels? Perfect - cute, endangered, Scottish vibe if you want. Wildcats would be ace - fierce, rare, proper Highland energy.

Me? I'd go for a puffin on the fiver - those clowns of the sea, bright beaks, cliff-dwellers, total British icon without the politics. Or a hedgehog—spiky, nocturnal, everyone's childhood hero.

No real issue with changes - notes aren't sacred. They evolve like everything else. If wildlife gets us thinking about nature instead of dead politicians, I'm in. Just don't make 'em plastic again - paper's better for the planet.

What do you reckon - should they do a whole "British beasts" series? Or keep one human for tradition?