Company News • 26.08.2013
Sense and Sensibility for Bank of England
As the CTO at CashGuard, Björn Eriksson is at the forefront of the cash trends. He shares his expert commentary on news, trends and developments in all things related to cash
Jane Austen will be featured on the new GBP10 banknotes. The decision was taken this summer by Bank of England. There was a lot of online activity before and after the decision. Some of it led to police actions.
When Sir Winston Churchill was selected to appear on the new GBP5 banknotes earlier this year, he replaced 19th Century social reformer Elisabeth Fry. This meant that there were going to be only men on the English banknotes. Except for Queen Elizabeth, of course. This prompted intensive online actions from feminist activist Caroline Criado-Perez and others. As a result, Bank of England decided that Jane Austen was to appear on the GBP10 banknote. The online actions were very effective for the selection of character for off-line money.
Directly after the decision, Caroline Criado-Perez was subjected to fierce online threats and abuse. It was very contrary to common sense and sensibility. Three men were arrested for their online actions against her, and are now facing very offline penalties.
The public has lots to say about banknotes
It good to see that so many care about what and who appears on banknotes. Bank of England has received suggestions for almost 200 different characters. Yes, Mick Jagger was suggested. But when more 30 000 persons wrote that they wanted Jane Austen, it was by far the most important public feedback. People care about their banknotes. For electronic money the public influence is minimal, you usually see commercial logotypes. Cash as a payment form that belongs to the people, whereas electronic money belongs to a few companies. Some might think that cash is about to be replaced by electronic money so this is a non-issue. They are not in touch with reality. The Jane Austen banknote will be printed in billions and will be in millions of wallets.
Banknotes are a part of society and it matters what they show and represent; with pride and no prejudice.
channels: consulting
