Body & Soul0 min ago
Matthew Boulton on the new £50 banknote
He just pipped Sir Bruce Forsythe to the honour. It was the most shocking result since Elizabeth Fry beat the highly fancied David Beckham onto the £5 note. And David Attenborough has inconveniently not died, so we have to put up with Adam Smith on the £20 note.
Apparently Matthew Boulton invented Birmingham.
Have we run out of famous Britons to honour on our banknotes? The current lot seem fairly obscure to the average man or woman in the street.
Should the subjects on banknotes be more popularist and be of people we have actually heard of? And who do you think is worthy of the honour?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15522387
Apparently Matthew Boulton invented Birmingham.
Have we run out of famous Britons to honour on our banknotes? The current lot seem fairly obscure to the average man or woman in the street.
Should the subjects on banknotes be more popularist and be of people we have actually heard of? And who do you think is worthy of the honour?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15522387
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>>>Have we run out of famous Britons to honour on our banknotes?
Matthew Boulton was a major businessman in the 1700s who worked with James Watt to install hundreds of steam engines all over the world. He helped create and drive forward the industrial revolution, without him we may never have become the world power we did.
In fact James Watt was so impressed with him as a businessman he moved down from Glasgow to Birmingham so he could work with him on developing his steam engine business.
Boulton also set up Birmingham mint, improving the quality of coinage in the UK, and even helping the London mint improve their techniques. The Birmingham mint under Boulton produced coins for the UK and for countries all over the world. The Birmingham Mint still exists and produces the Euro coin amongst others.
Boulton also set up a huge factory in Soho, Birmingham, one of the largest in the world at the time, producing all sorts of things: coins, jewellry, silver plated objects and so on.
He also created the Lunar Society, a group of "thinkers" including Watt, Wedgewood, Erasmus Darwin, Priestly and so on, who met to try to improve their knowledge of science and business.
He was one the THE great businessmen of the 1700s and we could do with more like him today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Boulton
Matthew Boulton was a major businessman in the 1700s who worked with James Watt to install hundreds of steam engines all over the world. He helped create and drive forward the industrial revolution, without him we may never have become the world power we did.
In fact James Watt was so impressed with him as a businessman he moved down from Glasgow to Birmingham so he could work with him on developing his steam engine business.
Boulton also set up Birmingham mint, improving the quality of coinage in the UK, and even helping the London mint improve their techniques. The Birmingham mint under Boulton produced coins for the UK and for countries all over the world. The Birmingham Mint still exists and produces the Euro coin amongst others.
Boulton also set up a huge factory in Soho, Birmingham, one of the largest in the world at the time, producing all sorts of things: coins, jewellry, silver plated objects and so on.
He also created the Lunar Society, a group of "thinkers" including Watt, Wedgewood, Erasmus Darwin, Priestly and so on, who met to try to improve their knowledge of science and business.
He was one the THE great businessmen of the 1700s and we could do with more like him today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Boulton
The reason Churchill would be no good is lack of hair.
The bank of england try to make the bank notes difficult to copy, so the people on them need to have lots of "lines" so it is difficult to copy.
You may notice that nearly all the people on bank notes have long hair or wigs or beards, giving the artists a chance to put lots of wavy lines on the person.
Think of Wren, Stephenson, Adam Smith, etc, they all had long hair or beards.
The bank of england try to make the bank notes difficult to copy, so the people on them need to have lots of "lines" so it is difficult to copy.
You may notice that nearly all the people on bank notes have long hair or wigs or beards, giving the artists a chance to put lots of wavy lines on the person.
Think of Wren, Stephenson, Adam Smith, etc, they all had long hair or beards.
>Take Joseph Bazalgette for example
One of my heroes.
A man who almost single handedly solved London's terrible sewage problem (and along with it stopped the deaths of thousands of people from cholera and so on).
He spent decades designing the London sewage system before governemt gave him the money to go ahead (after the great stink).
Thanks to him we now have wonderful walkways (and roads / underground) along the River Thames. If ever you walk along the north bank or south bank of the Thames you are walking along land "created" by Bazalgette.
City leaders from cities all over the world came to see his sewers before going ahead with building theie own.
He also built a number of bridges over the Thames as well.
If you look carefully at the wall of the Thames opposite the Houses of Parliament you can see his name carved into the rock. A statue to him on the North side of the river as well.
His sewers are still being used as he factored in plenty of "extra" to cope with the planned growth of London. Only now after all these years are they thinking about installing new sewers (under the Thames).
One of my heroes.
A man who almost single handedly solved London's terrible sewage problem (and along with it stopped the deaths of thousands of people from cholera and so on).
He spent decades designing the London sewage system before governemt gave him the money to go ahead (after the great stink).
Thanks to him we now have wonderful walkways (and roads / underground) along the River Thames. If ever you walk along the north bank or south bank of the Thames you are walking along land "created" by Bazalgette.
City leaders from cities all over the world came to see his sewers before going ahead with building theie own.
He also built a number of bridges over the Thames as well.
If you look carefully at the wall of the Thames opposite the Houses of Parliament you can see his name carved into the rock. A statue to him on the North side of the river as well.
His sewers are still being used as he factored in plenty of "extra" to cope with the planned growth of London. Only now after all these years are they thinking about installing new sewers (under the Thames).
"we don't do industry any more, VHG, it died out in the 70s. "
As I keep trying to show people, manufacturing is not dead in the UK - it just isn't labour-intensive, is far more specialised, and is smaller in scale - much as is happening to some degree or another across the Western world. But it still makes up a significant portion of GDP.
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Anyway, back to the original question - if you wanted to make them more populist, Churchill would make sense purely from his status in British culture/national mythology. As Jake says, you could find legitimate objections and problems but if you really wanted to you could almost certainly do the same with just about anyone else on a Bank note (Adam Smith, for instance, isn't without his critics and much of his ideas about growth have been superceded but he's there for the good reason that he's simply a very important figure).
But personally I quite like the idea of obscure but admirable and important figures gaining recognition on banknotes. Not sure why - personally if I haven't heard of people (as I hadn't of Boulton), I look them up. I like the idea of our currency invoking that in people.
As I keep trying to show people, manufacturing is not dead in the UK - it just isn't labour-intensive, is far more specialised, and is smaller in scale - much as is happening to some degree or another across the Western world. But it still makes up a significant portion of GDP.
---
Anyway, back to the original question - if you wanted to make them more populist, Churchill would make sense purely from his status in British culture/national mythology. As Jake says, you could find legitimate objections and problems but if you really wanted to you could almost certainly do the same with just about anyone else on a Bank note (Adam Smith, for instance, isn't without his critics and much of his ideas about growth have been superceded but he's there for the good reason that he's simply a very important figure).
But personally I quite like the idea of obscure but admirable and important figures gaining recognition on banknotes. Not sure why - personally if I haven't heard of people (as I hadn't of Boulton), I look them up. I like the idea of our currency invoking that in people.
"But personally I quite like the idea of obscure but admirable and important figures gaining recognition on banknotes. Not sure why - personally if I haven't heard of people (as I hadn't of Boulton), I look them up. I like the idea of our currency invoking that in people. "
Just what I was thinking. It's also handy if you do pub quizzes as it seems to be a frequently asked question!
John Scott Haldane would be my suggestion, though I don't know how he scores on the hairiness scale.
Just what I was thinking. It's also handy if you do pub quizzes as it seems to be a frequently asked question!
John Scott Haldane would be my suggestion, though I don't know how he scores on the hairiness scale.
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