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The Bank of England has decided to replace human faces on the back of its banknotes with pictures of puffins, foxes and frogs. That alone would be a headline. What turned this into a scandal was a Freedom of Information revelation that private focus groups told the Bank those human faces — Winston Churchill, Alan Turing, Jane Austen — were “elitist” and “potentially divisive.” The Bank says the change is about security and public preference. The new reporting suggests something else helped seal the deal.
What the Bank says — and what the FOI shows
Governor Andrew Bailey and the Bank of England insist the move to wildlife is about staying ahead of counterfeiters and following a public consultation that favored nature imagery. The Bank points out about 44,000 people answered that consultation and roughly 60% picked “nature” over people. The shortlist now includes 18 native species, from the Atlantic puffin to the common frog, and Bailey will make the final choice.
The surprise: Savanta focus groups called historical figures “divisive”
But the Telegraph’s FOI reporting revealed a Savanta study, done for the Bank, where focus-group participants reportedly called historical portraits “elitist” and warned that showing Georgian and Victorian architecture could trigger accusations of colonial links. The Savanta material advised officials that using famous Britons risked creating a “backward‑looking vision of the UK” that could divide people. That’s a curious factor for a central bank to lean on when deciding what the nation’s money looks like.
Why the uproar matters — and why Americans should pay attention
There’s a real question here about public institutions and priorities. The Bank can credibly argue security is the main driver of a currency redesign. But when a state body commissions research that flags beloved wartime leaders and celebrated scientists as “elitist,” it looks less like neutral risk assessment and more like a values test. Critics such as Retired British Army Colonel Richard Kemp and Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick have already blasted the decision as cultural erasure. If your response is “so what?” — remember, the same impulses that swap Churchill for a frog in London could show up in Washington someday.
What to watch next
The immediate next steps are simple: the Bank will finish the shortlist consultation and Governor Bailey will pick the animals for the new series. The bigger test is whether the Bank will publish the Savanta material and explain how much those focus groups mattered. If central banks are going to redesign money, fine — but do it for counterfeit resilience and clear reasons, not because a handful of focus-group comments made bureaucrats uncomfortable. And while I like a good puffin as much as the next person, let’s not pretend wildlife on paper fixes the real job of central banks: keeping currency secure and prices predictable.
