BOE Releases Six Pages of Names for 50-Pound Bill's Next Face

(Bloomberg) -- It won’t be easy for the Bank of England to choose who to put on the new 50-pound note.

The U.K. central bank received 114,000 nominations within a week of inviting the public to submit the name of any scientist from any field -- including biology, chemistry and physics -- to become the face of U.K.’s new bills, it said Monday. The preliminary list ran six pages long and included physicist and black-hole theorist Stephen Hawking as well as computer scientist Alan Turing.

The process, which excludes scientists who are still alive, is open until Dec. 14. Governor Mark Carney will make the final choice next year once a committee prepares a shortlist from eligible nominations.

The new plastic notes will be introduced after the next iteration of 20-pound bills come in to circulation in 2020. Nineteenth-century artist JMW Turner will appear on those polymer notes. All British currency features the queen on the front.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anurag Kotoky in London at akotoky@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Brian Swint

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