Bank of England puts puffin, owl, bee and hedgehog on the next notes

The Bank of England said on Thursday that the Atlantic puffin, the barn owl, the buff-tailed bumblebee and the European hedgehog will be the central images on the next series of Bank of England notes. The choice follows a public consultation that drew 478,531 responses and 2,549,003 selections across a shortlist of 18 animals. The Bank has not assigned an animal to a denomination. The portrait of the monarch will remain on the notes.

The shortlist was split into three groups, built with a panel of wildlife specialists: mammals; birds; and amphibians, insects and fish. In the last group the buff-tailed bumblebee, Bombus terrestris, took 360,399 selections, well clear of the emperor dragonfly on 143,894, the common frog on 120,382, the marsh fritillary on 108,467, the basking shark on 69,699 and the Atlantic salmon on 45,090. Among birds the barn owl, Tyto alba, led with 270,596, ahead of the common kingfisher on 211,277 and the Atlantic puffin, Fratercula arctica, on 183,137. The great spotted woodpecker drew 86,839, the white-tailed eagle 46,109 and the Eurasian curlew 44,521. Among mammals the European hedgehog, Erinaceus europaeus, led with 259,665, just ahead of the red fox on 244,651. The brown hare drew 130,614, the grey seal 92,043, the pine marten 82,773 and the bottlenose dolphin 48,847.

The puffin was not the most selected bird. The Bank took it because it was the most popular marine animal, and because a coastal species would make the four notes easier to tell apart. That is a design decision, not a vote tally. The fox and the kingfisher outpolled the puffin and still lost. Anyone reading only the headline will miss that point. The series is meant to be a set, and the Bank treated variety as a security feature as well as a picture.

Chief cashier Victoria Cleland said she was delighted that nearly half a million people had responded, and that the response showed cash still matters. She said the four animals would show the range of wildlife in the United Kingdom and would also strengthen the security of the notes. Rhys Phillips, the incoming chief cashier, said the Bank would now design, test and produce the notes, joining the announced images to new security features. The Bank's own release says the first denomination of the next series is expected over the next few years. Design, testing and printing take years, not months.

The current Series G notes carry people, not animals. The £5, issued in September 2016, shows Winston Churchill. The £10, issued in September 2017, shows Jane Austen. The £20, issued in February 2020, shows J.M.W. Turner. The £50, issued in June 2021, shows Alan Turing. Thursday's decision is the first time the Bank has said animals will replace people as the featured images on English notes. The puffin already appears on a Royal Mint 20p, and a bee on the £1 coin. The notes will also carry other natural elements, and the Bank has left open the chance that other shortlisted animals appear in the background design.

The practical consequence is slow. Existing notes stay legal tender. Shops will not see a hedgehog £20 this year. What changes now is the brief given to the designers. Each animal has to work at the size of a portrait, survive intaglio printing, and still be distinct under a cashier's lamp. A bee and a hedgehog are easy to tell apart. An owl and a puffin are less obvious once reduced to a few centimetres and overlaid with a window and a foil patch. That is why the Bank talked about counterfeit resilience in the same sentence as wildlife. A note that looks like its neighbour is a weaker note.

The vote counts also show where the public split. The fox lost to the hedgehog by about 15,000 selections, a narrow margin in a field of six mammals. The kingfisher lost to the owl by about 59,000. The bee's lead was the widest of the three category wins. Those numbers are the part of Thursday's announcement that will matter when the Bank later defends the puffin. It can point to a rule it stated in advance: one animal from each group, plus a marine species so the set is not three inland pictures and a gap.

Cleland's line that cash still matters sits against a long fall in the share of payments made with notes. The Bank did not publish a new cash-use figure on Thursday. It published a participation figure: 478,531 people answered a question about pictures on money. The next hard date is the assignment of animals to the £5, £10, £20 and £50. Until that list exists, the series is a set of four species and a promise that the monarch stays.