Bank of England picks a puffin, a barn owl, a bumblebee and a hedgehog for the next notes

The Bank of England will put four animals on the next series of pound notes: the Atlantic puffin, the barn owl, the buff-tailed bumblebee and the European hedgehog. It is the first time animals will replace people as the central images on Bank of England notes. The monarch stays on the other side. No issue date has been set. The Bank says design, testing and printing will take years.

A panel of wildlife experts drew up a shortlist of 18 animals across mammals, birds, amphibians, insects and fish. The public could nominate up to six. More than 2.5 million votes were cast by 478,531 people, including wildlife groups and primary-school classes. The buff-tailed bumblebee, Bombus terrestris, was the clearest winner, with 360,399 votes. The barn owl, Tyto alba, won its bird category. The European hedgehog, Erinaceus europaeus, won the mammal category. The Atlantic puffin, Fratercula arctica, was added by the Bank to mark marine life and the coastline, and to vary the set, even though other marine animals drew more nominations.

The red fox and the common kingfisher received more nominations than some of the animals that made the final four. They were not selected. That gap is the part of the announcement the vote totals do not explain by themselves. The Bank used the public result and then applied a second filter: variety of habitat, and the practical question of whether the image can carry security features. A puffin on a cliff and a bumblebee on a flower are different printing problems from a portrait.

Victoria Cleland, the Bank's chief cashier, said the four animals "showcase the great variety of wildlife we have in the UK" and "will also enhance the security of our banknotes." Rhys Phillips, the incoming chief cashier, said the next stage is to design, test and produce the notes, combining the announced imagery with security features and materials science. He said the notes have to be high quality, resilient and accessible. The designs are at an early stage. The Bank will show them closer to launch.

The four denominations in circulation are 5, 10, 20 and 50 pounds. The Bank has not said which animal goes on which note. Other nature elements may appear around the central image. The practical effect for the public is slow. Old notes remain legal tender until the Bank withdraws them, and a design that is still years from the press will not reach cash machines in this parliament. The announcement is a choice of subject, not a date for a new note in a wallet.

The security claim is specific. Modern Bank of England notes are polymer. Portraits have been used in part because fine detail in a face is hard to copy. An animal image has to do the same work: a feather edge, a spine, a wing scale, printed so that a copy fails a tilt or a magnifier. Phillips's reference to materials science is the constraint. The image the public voted for has to survive the press and the fraud test, or it will be redrawn.

England is late to animals on money. Other states have used fauna for decades. The break here is local. Bank of England notes have carried historical figures on the reverse for the modern series. Replacing those figures with a puffin, an owl, a bee and a hedgehog ends that run. The King remains. The public side of the note changes.

What a reader can use now is the vote arithmetic. Almost half a million people cast 2.5 million nominations. The bee won by a wide margin. The fox and the kingfisher polled strongly and lost. The puffin was added after the count. The notes themselves are not close.