POLL: Whose face would you nominate to grace Canadian currency?

TORONTO — Who would you like to see on your currency? That was the question posed recently by Bank of England Governor Mark Carney in a search to find a new face for the £20 note.

In May, Carney made the first-ever call for nominations for a note design in the bank’s 320-year history. Carney, former head of the Bank of Canada, said the note would celebrate Britain’s achievements in the visual arts as he launched the public nomination period.

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Brits were asked to vote for the “visual artists who they believe helped to shape British thought, innovation, leadership, values and society.”

There were a total 29,701 nominations submitted of 592 eligible visual artists, including Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin and fashion designer Laura Ashley.

A shortlist of the nominees will be released in September. A final decision will be announced in spring 2016 along with a concept image for the winner’s portrait. The note should be in circulation by 2020.

There are already some changes for British currency underway; the notes are switching to polymer, with the image of Winston Churchill replacing that of Elizabeth Fry on the £5 note and Jane Austen’s likeness replacing Charles Darwin’s on the £10 note.

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The Bank of England has also announced that future banknotes will include symbols representing all four of the home nations, according to the official release.

“The imagery will be taken from the Royal Coat of Arms and the Royal Badge of Wales. This follows discussions with the First Ministers of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The design will be released at the unveiling of the new £5 note next year.”