People Of Note – Part Two

In Part One, yesterday, we discovered the great Britons who had been plucked from our illustrious history to make it onto the first decimal banknotes. In Part Two, we look at the second generation of monetary figureheads.

The first note to be produced by the Bank of England in the nineties, and the first of the “E series”, started out as a bit of a disaster. The £5 note, featuring George Stephenson (1781 – 1848) had its original print run destroyed when it was discovered that it contained an incorrect year of death for the engineer.

The note, naturally enough, celebrated Stephenson’s pioneering work with steam locomotives, but it also began a trend of alarming facial hair on the banknotes. Stephenson’s sideburns were as much a product of the Industrial Age as the railways, factory production, and encouraging poor people to live in much closer proximity whilst they starved to death. Perhaps that explains the sad look in his eyes. It was in circulation from 1990 to 2003.

Next up we have the £20 note issued in 1991 and in circulation for ten years. It featured eminent scientist Michael Faraday (1791 – 1867) and also showed him delivering a lecture at the Royal Institute with his rather alarming “magneto-electric spark apparatus.”

The E series notes were the first to contain some new security features. For example, the foil strip woven through the paper, and the Queen’s head watermark in the centre.

The £10 note of this series followed Shakespeare with another of England’s famous writers, Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870).

The note was in circulation from 1992 until 2003, and showed the erratic and frankly inconsistent beard of Dickens, as well as a cricketing scene from his novel The Pickwick Papers. Dickens was a man with a great humility who stated clearly in his will that no monument should be erected in his honour. He also wished to be buried in an inexpensive and private manner, but he was actually interned in Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey. His inclusion in this roll call of honoured guests of English banknotes can be seen as either a fitting memorial or a clear ignorance of his wishes.

The final note in the original E series is also the only one still in use. It was introduced in 1994 and features Sir John Houblon (1632 – 1712).

Never heard of him? Not exactly Shakespeare, is he? His inclusion is, however, rather fitting as he was the first governor of the Bank of England. The note was issued to coincide with the bank’s 300^th anniversary. The house shown is Houblon’s home in Threadneedle Street – the current location of the Bank of England. 

The other Series E notes have all been through “revisions” over the last decade or so. Revisions which include an updating of the design and the addition of security features, which have meant a new historical figure taking their place on the reverse.

The first of these new series E notes came into circulation in 1999 and was officially withdrawn yesterday. It was the £20 note showing composer Sir Edward Elgar (1857 – 1934).

The note portrayed Worcester Cathedral, which was on Elgar’s doorstep as he grew up, and was also the venue for the first performance of his Enigma Variations in 1899. However, the majesty of the Cathedral paled in comparison to the glorious, lustrous moustache that has crawled onto the maestro’s top lip.

Secondly, we have the £10 note featuring Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882), which has been in use since November 2000.

The design shows Darwin and his legendary beard, along with HMS Beagle and a hummingbird, plus a drawing of Darwin’s magnifying glass. There is some dispute over the appropriateness of a hummingbird. It was his observations of the variety in species of finch, and not of hummingbird, that formed the basis of “On the Origin of the Species”.

Last of the series E revisions, issued in 2002, is the £5 note featuring one of the less famous additions to this exclusive group, Elizabeth Fry (1780 – 1845).

Fry was a social reformer best known for her work in improving conditions for prisoners. The illustration shows her reading to female inmates and their children at Newgate prison. Unfortunately, Fry had no facial hair to adorn her portrait. I say unfortunate because the detail of the hairs is a lot more difficult for forgers to accurately counterfeit, thereby providing greater security.

Despite the revisions, any note has a limited life span and in March 2007, we saw the first of the new series of notes, the “F series”. The £20 note is by far the most counterfeited and so this is the one that has been replaced first. On 30^th June 2010 this became the only official twenty in circulation, depicting economist Adam Smith (1723 – 1790).

Smith is perhaps not up there with Newton and Darwin in the public renown stakes, but his work in his chosen field has led him to be dubbed a father of modern economics. The illustration shows Smith’s example economic model of a pin factory, where the division of labour helped to increase productivity. Smith was a private man who considered himself to be very strange looking and as such did not care to sit for portraits. The limited number of images has meant that the depiction on the note is a simple profile, lacking the desired splendour of unnecessarily elaborate facial hair.

Adam Smith’s inclusion is a break from tradition, in that he is the first Scot to appear on an English banknote. He has also been the face of Clydesdale bank’s £50 note since 1981.

The next note that will be introduced, later this year, is the new design of the £50 that will again break with tradition, this time featuring two people; James Watt (1736 – 1819) and Matthew Boulton (1728 – 1809). Their combined engineering skill and business acumen were instrumental in the development of the steam engines that powered the Industrial Revolution.

So, how does one get on an English banknote? Let’s look at the evidence; a mix of scientists, artist and philanthropists; practical people who have irreversibly changed the shape of society; and great thinkers or creators who have simply allowed us to appreciate their abilities. To be honest, I’m none the wiser.

This is good news for those of you who may want to get yourself on the currency. It seems all you need to do is make an impact on the society around you, and isn’t that something for which we should all be striving?

But you’d better get on with it before we join the Euro.

My suggestion for a new face on a note? Harry Eccleston, an artist and designer who worked with the Bank of England for 25 years and designed the original D series pictorial notes. Notes that have a detail and splendour that are lost in our modern currency. He died, aged 87, on April 30^th this year.

Words by Allen Turing. Images from the Bank of England.