The Bank of England unveils design of new £50 banknote featuring Alan Turing
bankofengland.co.uk
bankofengland.co.uk
When the British queen dies does Canada have to issue new notes?
Obviously not.
(Only Bank of Scotland did it + a few notes from the Bank of England, so it wasn’t so common and didn’t feel like a tradition)
And that the “British” queen is still queen of Canada although under a separate title meaning a person could be the head monarch of Canada and not head monarch of Britain.
But, to answer the original question: the coins issued under the reign of King George continued to be legal tender until they were phased out naturally, I think the process may have accelerated a bit but for sure there were people using money with King George until 1952.
Shilling coins were in circulation until 1997 - it is really quite recently that King George on cash was phased out entirely.
A new, smaller 5p coin was introduced in June 1990, and the shilling-size 5p coin (and remaining shilling coins) were withdrawn at the end of that year.
In theory, some very old shillings and florins from 1816 could still have been in circulation in 1990 and 1992. But, the Royal Mint and coin collectors would have removed those whenever they could (only pre-1947 ones by Mint for the silver content).
(If you’re unaware, Canada is a constitutional monarchy and the UK monarch happens to be the same person as the Canadian monarch.)
Probably, but so is the monarchy.
If the British monarchy is abolished while the present monarch is alive, there will never be a time when “the British Queen” dies.
Once you give every artifact of culture away in the name of efficiency and 'not having to make a decision' ...
... then we'll have a Starbucks on every corner and they can issue the currency?
Technically in Canada it would be King Charles (if that's the name he takes) on one of the notes.
Canada also has on their notes a woman of colour who got into a minor verbal debate about 100 years ago about race as an example of 'social progress'?
Turing is a sleek choice for the notes, because he's gay it has woke points, but he did break the code and possibly enabled a tipping point that literally saved the world. Which is a thing that kind of deserves recognition ...
Edit: and of course there was his public shaming and subsequent post mortem redemption, which adds a major factor to his life drama. I think his legacy has the right mix of legitimacy and dramatic intrigue such that he will be one of the well remembered people when we look back several hundred years from now.
I mean, have you seen them? They're gorgeous. Using Swiss cash was my favorite part of living in Switzerland aside from the gorgeous nature.
Take a look: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknotes_of_the_Swiss_franc#N....
I'm saying that elevating people who have materially contributed to the nation, it's character and history is a positive cultural artefact and it's worth an occasional fuss.
For one, I would love to have Aladdin Trudeau on a few notes.
What is wrong with you all?
We are doing a disservice to Alan Turing’s legacy by bickering with our small minds. Shame on everyone here.
[1]: 80MB zip https://b-o-e.uk/TheNew50-PressPack
Lots of yesterday discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26577349
Maybe we could use the budget from the Office of the Governor General for something more useful.
The amount saved for you would be equivalent to about 1/6 of a cup of coffee at Starbucks, so that's a win.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/canadians-desire-to-drop-mo...
https://globalnews.ca/news/6496234/ipsos-poll-canada-monarch...
"The poll also noted that only 22 per cent of participants want to see Prince Charles, the first in line for the throne, become King after the Queen dies or abdicates, "
During the man's life he was treated disgracefully when he should have been a hero, and now somehow putting the face of Alan Turing on a bank note makes things better?
Let a lone a bank note that 90% of the population will never see or use.
An assurance that this won't happen again would be a good start, along with some material attempts to right a wrong (I don't know what or how that looks I'm just discussing).
I already saw the apology, but "sorry" is meaningless. Actions speak louder than words and all that.
I know gay people who have been beaten up by strangers merely for walking down the street holding hands, this disgraceful behaviour continues to be a huge issue, and more needs to be done to combat it, that can start with the government taking more firm action to combat such hate crimes.
On the other hand, meanwhile children are being given hormone treatments with permanent consequences at the insistence of health professionals, only to regret it when it's too late. Maybe we've not learned as much as we thought. Still, whatever you think of that controversy, and there are definitely multiple sides to it, Turing is the perfect figure to act as a catalyst for public debate. We've still got a lot of these issues to work out.
There's also the tangential issue that it's the £50. I haven't seen a £50 in about 20 years. It's hard to spark debate once the talk of the note being issued is over, when the overwhelming majority of the population will never see one.
For the non-brits here; most everyday establishments won't accept £50 notes due to risk of forgery. The £20 is the largest day-to-day use note here, we don't have a £100 either, £50 is the largest.
What else to do ? You can't change the past
The problem as I see it, is that it feels disingenuous.
There are many still suffering similar attitudes in the UK, and the health service is still dealing with issues of identity and sexuality in the wrong ways based on those I know who've experienced it and from what I've seen/read.
Don't get me wrong, things are improving, and putting Turing on a bank note will bring discussion, but I don't believe for a second that this is the goal, it's a PR stunt (for lack of a better term). Just because Turing is in the past doesn't mean it should be forgotten though and more effort needs to be made not just to apologise but to condemn the behaviour from others.
Anyway, I'm just having a discussion, I think my point was that standalone, Alan Turing on a bank note is great, but I don't think I can look at it in isolation without thinking/discussing how it's not quite good enough. I hope that makes sense since I'm struggling to articulate my meaning.
Thanks for explanation.
We have lots of issues with that where I live. But our current politicians are not even willing to make gestures in that direction. So in my mind was that they (uk politicians) were at least doing something, even if its mostly just a gesture.
I can see how you could see that as not enough.