oooh, we’ve got a new design fiver today and we have a note that features a woman again. the prison reformer elizabeth fry balances out the scientist charles darwin on the tenner and the composer edward elgar on the twenty pound note. (is there a nickname for a twenty pound note?)

the issue of the new five pound note completes the bank of england’s reissue of all english notes. i really like the new notes they’re much cleaner designs than the old ones. hopefully by the time the security features on these notes are outdated we’ll have a new currency.

on the bank of england’s site i also learnt that the promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of … on english currency is valid for all time, the bank will exchange notes of any age for current tender. this makes the plot of shooting fish (in which a couple of con men have to manage to exchange their soon to be discontinued notes before the expiry deadline) even more ludicrous than it was to start with.