David Farrar: Keep history on bank notes

The Bank of England has announced that they plan to replace famous historical figures from their banknotes, and replace them with cute animals. No I’m not joking. They cite a poll and the fact animals are harder to counterfeit.

Their current notes are:

• £5 – Winston Churchill

• £10 – Jane Austen

• £20 – J. M. W. Turner

• £50 – Alan Turing

All great choices – their most famous PM, author, painter and mathematician.

In NZ the people are:

• $5 — Sir Edmund Hillary

• $10 — Kate Sheppard

• $20 — Queen Elizabeth II

• $50 — Sir Āpirana Ngata

• $100 — Ernest Rutherford

Also all great choices, and a great way to get kids interested in history.

Hillary being placed on a bank note was very unusual, because he was alive at the time. As I understand it the rule was to never having a living non-royal on a bank note in case they do something bad later in life. Imagine the embarrassment if one of your bank notes had a felon on it. But Hillary was held in such high esteem, that a (worthwhile) exception was made for him.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.