A new British banknote featuring a self-portrait by the 19th-century painter J.M.W. Turner entered circulation yesterday.
The twenty-pound note is the third to be made of durable polymer material rather than paper, following the launch of new five-pound and ten-pound notes in 2016 and 2017.
There are currently around two billion twenty-pound paper notes in circulation in Britain, featuring the 18th century economist, Adam Smith, and they will remain legal tender for now.
Bank of England Governor, Mark Carney, who was due to launch the banknote at London’s Tate Britain gallery yesterday, said Turner was “arguably the single most influential British artist of all time”.
Turner is best known for his seascapes, which grew more abstract with age.
As well as his self-portrait, the new note features one of Turner’s most famous paintings, “The Fighting Temeraire”, which depicts the last journey of a ship that played a key role in Britain’s naval victory over France in the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar.
A new polymer fifty pound note, featuring the 20th-century mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing, is due to enter circulation next year.
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