It looks like a Canadian will make the final call on a thoroughly British question: Should author Jane Austen replace Charles Darwin on the new £10 note?
That call is one incoming Bank of England Governor Mark Carney will have to make after he replaces current Governor Sir Mervyn King on July 1.
The proposition to have the beloved British author become the new face of the £10 note comes amid growing controversy over who appears on British money.
In April, the decision to replace prison reformer Elizabeth Fry with former British prime minister Winston Churchill on the £5 note in 2015 was met with criticism, because it means no British women will be featured on the country’s banknotes, with the exception of the Queen.
An online petition against the Fry-Churchill swap has garnered more than 29,000 signatures and petition organizers are threatening to take the matter to court, citing discrimination under the country’s Equality Act.
“An all-male line-up on our banknotes sends out the damaging message that no woman has done anything important enough to appear. This is patently untrue,” says the petition.
King addressed the matter Tuesday, telling a treasury committee that Austen – author of literary classics Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility -- has been the top choice to replace Darwin for a number of years. He said the bank has no intention of dropping women from Britain’s bank notes.
