The Aporia · Barn owls, bees, puffins and hedgehogs to feature on British banknotes

Barn owls, bees, puffins and hedgehogs to feature on British banknotes

Read the original at The Straits Times ↗

Cite

APA MLA Chicago

The Straits Times. (2026, October 8). Barn owls, bees, puffins and hedgehogs to feature on British banknotes. The Straits Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/barn-owls-bees-puffins-and-hedgehogs-to-feature-on-british-banknotes

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Quick Summary

The Bank of England announced on October 8 that barn owls, bumblebees, puffins, and hedgehogs will replace historical figures like Winston Churchill on future British banknotes. This decision followed a public consultation where nearly half a million people voted to choose the wildlife imagery. The buff-tailed bumblebee was the most popular choice among the 18 animals presented. Despite a significant decline in cash usage due to digital payment methods, the BoE plans to continue featuring the monarch on banknotes while updating designs to enhance distinctiveness and security against counterfeiting.

Written by AI on 2026-10-08, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

The Bank of England announced in October 2023 that barn owls, buff-tailed bumblebees, Atlantic puffins, and European hedgehogs will feature on new banknotes, replacing historical figures like Winston Churchill. Over nearly half a million public votes cast for a shortlist of 18 animals, the buff-tailed bumblebee was the most popular choice, followed by the barn owl and European hedgehog. Despite receiving fewer votes than some alternatives, the Atlantic puffin was selected to represent marine wildlife and add variety to the new banknotes. The redesign aims to enhance security features while celebrating UK biodiversity; however, specific animals for each denomination have yet to be decided. The first of these new notes is expected to enter circulation over the next few years.

Written for “Animals On Banknotes” on 2026-11-02, grounded in this article and the 3 other(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.

Hedgehog among four chosen animals to feature on your new banknotes Same event

BBC News

Hedges 1 of 24 claims Outlet record 68/100

Bank of England reveals which animals will feature on its next banknotes series Same event

Evening Standard

Hedges 1 of 25 claims Outlet record 64/100

Bank of England reveals animals to feature on next banknotes Same event

Evening Standard

Hedges 1 of 28 claims Outlet record 64/100

How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted

sentences that state something as happening or true

Uncertain

0 of 11 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")

Leaning

not political

takes no side on a contested political question

Publisher signals

66/100

The Straits Times's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.

Outlets on this story

Environment

Same framing elsewhere

articles that frame the event the way this one does

Analyzed 2026-10-08 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability

Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Straits Times · 4193 article(s) · 5 correction(s) detected

Running correction rate · 5 correction(s)

2026-10-30

Number of residents leaving Oleshky still unclear, Kyiv says

2026-10-21

X Community Notes ‘failed’ to flag US election falsehoods, study says

2026-10-04

Tennessee prison chief resigns after failed execution

2026-10-03

US prison chief resigns after failed execution of death row inmate Christa Pike

2026-09-13

Russia hits Ukrainian-Polish border area, Kyiv says

Who wrote this

The Straits Times

2728 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction

🔮 How it plays out over the coming days or weeks could have a significant impact on next year's parliamentary election and potentially push Poland closer to US President Donald Trump and away from the European mainstream.

2026-11-02 · assertive framing · Explainer-What's behind Poland's constitutional crisis?

🔮 Houthi official Hamid Rizq posted a video, which Reuters could not immediately verify, of what he said were the group's fighters entering Souq al-Rabouh in Maqatirah district.

2026-11-02 · assertive framing · Yemen's Houthis advance to within 80 km of Aden, sources say

🔮 "The worst forecasts are coming true.

2026-11-02 · assertive framing · Seven migrants die in seas off Spain's Canary Islands

🔮 • Critics notably say CNews'agenda increasingly follows the lines taken by Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN), from which the channel could benefit if, as polls suggest, Le Pen wins the 2027 Presidential election and fulfils her promise to privatise public broadcasting, which CNews has long criticised.

2026-11-02 · mixed framing · French petition seeks to shut down Bollore's news channel CNews

🔮 Though no one would call him naive — he has served both as leader of the opposition against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and as a member of a unity cabinet under him — Herzog's soft-spoken manner can appear out of step with the times.

2026-11-02 · assertive framing · Isaac Herzog: the mild-mannered middleman in Israel's political brawl

🔮 We could not bear it.

2026-11-02 · assertive framing · Displaced Palestinians return to damaged Hebron quarter as Israeli troops withdraw

🔮 They saw an example of what reparatory justice could look like in practice.

2026-11-02 · mixed framing · As reparations debate grows, Caribbean campaigners point to one British family's example

🔮 On the eve of elections that will decide whether President Donald Trump’s Republican Party keeps control of Congress, voters’ minds are on the economy, with high and rising prices a key issue and many blaming Trump’s policies, specifically tariffs and the Iran war, for the nagging inflation.

2026-11-02 · assertive framing · American voters in a sour economic mood heading into midterm elections

🔮 US President Donald Trump’s threat to strike Iran again confronts America’s Gulf allies with a stark prospect: another war decided in Washington in which the US bases built to protect them could instead make them targets for harsh Iranian reprisal.

2026-11-02 · assertive framing · Trump's Iran threat renews Gulf fears of a war it didn't choose

🔮 Hungary's governing Tisza party will approve the president's nominee for chief prosecutor, Prime Minister Peter Magyar said on Monday, a significant step in Magyar's efforts to reshape public institutions after his April election victory.

2026-11-02 · assertive framing · Hungary's governing party backs nominee for chief prosecutor

Also by The Straits Times

Explainer-What's behind Poland's constitutional crisis?

2026-11-02 · The Straits Times

Yemen's Houthis advance to within 80 km of Aden, sources say

2026-11-02 · The Straits Times

French petition seeks to shut down Bollore's news channel CNews

2026-11-02 · The Straits Times

Seven migrants die in seas off Spain's Canary Islands

2026-11-02 · The Straits Times

Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.

All 2728 articles by The Straits Times →

Topics

Bank of England BoE British Britons LONDON

Subjects

BoE ORG · 4× Britons NORP · 2× Bank of England ORG · 1× Britain GPE · 1× British NORP · 1× European ORG · 1× LONDON GPE · 1× Victoria Cleland PERSON · 1× Winston Churchill PERSON · 1× the Bank of England ORG · 1×

Narrative

The BoE’s decision in March to no longer feature famous Britons on future banknotes, in favour of native wildlife, dismayed politicians across the political spectrum and prompted speculation that the central bank wanted to avoid controversies around historic figures. The BoE said the change would make its banknotes more distinctive and harder to counterfeit, and followed a public consultation where people had been invited to choose between different categories of images.

framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-08

🔮 LONDON – Barn owls, bumblebees, puffins and hedgehogs will feature on new Bank of England banknotes over the coming years, replacing World War II leader Winston Churchill and other historic figures, the Bank of England said on Oct 8.

2026-10-08 · The Straits Times

Barn owls, bees, puffins and hedgehogs to feature on British banknotes · assertive framing

Claims (11 extracted, 0 hedged)

Barn owls, bees, puffins and hedgehogs to feature on British banknotes asserted

owls → feature → banknotes

LONDON – Barn owls, bumblebees, puffins and hedgehogs will feature on new Bank of England banknotes over the coming years, replacing World War II leader Winston Churchill and other historic figures, the Bank of England said on Oct 8. asserted

Bank → feature → Oct

people → feature → images

Almost 500,000 people voted on a selection of 18 animals released by the central bank in June. asserted

people → vote → June

The buff-tailed bumblebee was the most popular creature on the shortlist, followed by the barn owl and the European hedgehog. asserted

bumblebee → follow → owl

Red foxes and common kingfishers received more votes than the Atlantic puffin, which the BoE selected to ensure a marine animal was on the list. asserted

animal → receive → list

“I am delighted that nearly half a million people responded to our wildlife imagery consultation, showing that cash still matters,” BoE chief cashier Victoria Cleland said. asserted

Cleland → delight → consultation

Cash usage has fallen steeply in Britain in recent years, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic which led to almost all retailers accepting contactless card and smartphone payments. asserted

retailers → fall → payments

Under 10% of payments were made by cash in 2024, but trade body UK Finance said it expected the decline to level off as a small percentage of Britons strongly preferred to use cash. asserted

percentage → make → cash

The new banknotes will continue to feature the monarch. asserted

banknotes → continue → monarch

The £5 Churchill note, issued in 2016, is the first due to be replaced, followed by the £10 with novelist Jane Austen, £20 with artist JMW Turner and £50 with mathematician Alan Turing. asserted

note → issue → Turing