Open vote for the Animals to appear on the new British Banknotes

I had a quick look around the Banknote forum, but couldn’t find anything previously posted, and as (like myself) many members are not always active in every forum sub-section, I thought I would post it here in the Free discussion section for an overall visibility.

The new British Banknotes will feature Animals and the Bank of England are asking members of the public to vote on which animals shall appear on the new notes. There is an online form link within the „notes to editors“ half way down the news article from the Bank of England.

Somewhat ironically the Bank of England would like the opinion of the „British Public“ or “British people living overseas“, however the link is on the www and can be accessed by anyone from anywhere of any nationality! And after selecting the animal options, you can (optional) choose to answer some demographic questions if you wish, which also have a „prefer not to answer“ option for individual questions, with one question asking where you reside, but only having areas within the UK as options.

I find this quite bizarre as in theory, with little effort, a different country other than the UK could influence the outcome. I voted once with no problems from Germany, and I am sure by deleting my cookies from my browser or by using a different browser I could vote again.

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/2026/june/wildlife-new-banknote-series

I wouldn't be surprized, if they already decided what to put, and just make it look legitimate through a “vote”

Ma9nWaRr10

I wouldn't be surprized, if they already decided what to put, and just make it look legitimate through a “vote”

I don’t think banknote design is a democracy 😉 and why bother putting all the effort into the online form and news releases?

Ma9nWaRr10

I wouldn't be surprized, if they already decided what to put, and just make it look legitimate through a “vote”

The Bank of Canada did this about 10 years ago. They called it “a vote” for the next most “notable Canadian” on the next Five Dollar note design after they had a short list of 5 candidates (I believe). They set up a site & I voted.  About 5 years ago, they announced it would be Terry Fox and the note would be released in a couple of years (and then Queen Elizabeth died). So all of that has been “shelved” or put on hold until they get the King Charles $20 out. It has been at least a decade (maybe longer) since they started their announcements as they released the redesigned TEN in 2018 (& the $5 was supposed to follow in 2019) or 7 years ago (we were suppoed to see it in circulation).  

IMO: it just seemed like “Much ado about nothing,” which is so common here (as everyone is left wondering when the heck is anything new going to show up).  So back to the BOE on animals: I would take it with a huge grain of salt.

Because I think this redesign is quite unpopular. If I was British, I certainly would not have wanted to replace historical figures, with some animals  And from what I saw a lot of people are unhappy

I like the idea of a redesign. Having well known British people on it is fine but it is hard to choose only 4 out of the many important people who contributed to our nation. Having animals also makes it align with the new coin designs which are very nice.

I've read about this at BBC earlier this week: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgzrpe6mzjo 

The article is from last tuesday.

For me this will be nice, I like notes with animals. Not counting that my country already have animals on notes for 30 years.

I don't know how this will end, but a 5 pound note with a puffin surely would go to the top of my wishlist.