Wildlife photography could land on Britain’s next banknotes

Wildlife photography is moving toward one of the most visible stages in Britain, the face of the next series of Bank of England notes. The consultation, which opened on June 3 and runs to July 3, asks the public to help choose from 18 native UK animals for the £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes, with each denomination set to carry a different species.

That matters for photography as much as for currency design. The Bank is not just looking for attractive animals, but for images that can do the work of banknotes, remain easy to tell apart, support updated security features and help people use cash with confidence. The strongest candidates are the ones that read instantly at a glance and still carry enough national character to sit on something as familiar as a note pulled from a wallet. In other words, these are wildlife photographs being asked to cross over from gallery walls and feeds into a daily public object.

The shortlist is grouped into mammals, birds and amphibians, insects and fish, and the Bank has said only animals already on the published list can be selected. Among the species under consideration are red fox, European hedgehog, pine marten, grey seal, brown hare, bottlenose dolphin, great spotted woodpecker, puffin, barn owl, white-tailed eagle, kingfisher, curlew, common frog, marsh fritillary butterfly, Atlantic salmon, basking shark, emperor dragonfly and buff-tailed bumblebee. Images credited to Andrew Parkinson, Jon Hawkins, Terry Whittaker, Lynne Newton, Amy Lewis, Neil Aldridge, Mark Hamblin and Danny Green are already part of the consultation material, a reminder that the final symbols of a national currency may well come from patient field work and sharp timing in the wild.

The Bank chose wildlife after its 2025 consultation drew the highest share of support for a nature theme, and it announced in March 2026 that wildlife would lead the new series. Victoria Cleland, the bank’s chief cashier, said she hoped the public would enjoy the process and pointed to the richness of UK wildlife. Andrew Bailey will make the final call, taking public feedback into account, and the Bank has made clear the most popular animal may not necessarily appear on the note for each denomination. The central images will also be paired with other wildlife and nature elements.

The conservation angle is already part of the story. WWT said 7 of the 18 shortlisted species are wetland species and noted that the launch took place at WWT London Wetland Centre. The Wildlife Trusts said many of the shortlisted species are under pressure from climate change, habitat loss and land-management change, with Katy Bell of Ulster Wildlife on the expert panel. If these photographs make it onto banknotes, they will do more than decorate money. They will show which kinds of wildlife images Britain is prepared to treat as national symbols, and which photographs can survive the jump from nature reserve to everyday exchange.