10 Money

It is said that money can’t buy you happiness but it can buy a better class of misery, but what changes to coins and paper currency would take place under the Cat Queen model? What benefits would we see? Let’s find out!

At present, every Bank of England banknote has one side taken up with a picture of the monarch (Scottish and Irish notes don’t have this limitation and produce more creative designs as a result – check these out! -  1 2 3 4). A cat queen means there is much greater scope for representation – for example, Bank of England notes have been limited to just 9 figures whilst Scotland has seen 21 (source). This simple change allows for greater diversity and a chance to celebrate historically significant figures across different fields of endeavour. And having someone feature on a banknote increases public awareness of them.

Coins are another important area. We would love to have braille added to every coin for the benefit of the blind. The current approach, where two 1p coins weight the same as a 2p coin, and two 5p coins weight the same as a 10p coin, is fantastic if you are Charles Atlas (reference - tv tropes) but not much good to anyone else. Unfortunately, this would result in the queen looking like the Wendy’s mascot so they don’t want to do that (although the Bank of England state that they haven’t bothered because they don’t believe there are enough people who would benefit - https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/faq).

 

If you don't already, follow Wendy's on Twitter all the cool kids are doing it!

To be fair to the Bank of England (and, as cat lovers we don’t like being fair but sometimes submit to the temptation), recent changes to banknotes and the weirdly shaped £1 coin have made things easier for those with trouble seeing, we just think they could do better (RNIB and £1 coin). Recent notes from the Royal Bank of Scotland are also making life easier for the visually impaired (RBS £10 note).

All the benefits of recent reforms would remain with a cat as queen, but more can be enjoyed. There are many historical figures we would like on banknotes and lots of amazing designs that could be introduced if restrictions were relaxed. Who would you like on your banknotes? List in the comments section below who you believe is deserving.

Beira Nevis

P.S We would like to see the following people (note that we only considered those connected to Scotland who had died before the year 2001, you don't have this restriction as we really don't have a way of stopping you):

Joseph Black, John Boyd Orr, Andrew Carnegie, Winifred Maxwell, Fionnghal nic Dhòmhnaill, Fanny Wright and Smudge