Turner’s self-portrait, as featured on the new £20 note, is on display at Tate Britain alongside the banknote.
The new £20 pound note being used with a Snapchat augmented reality (AR) lens
PA
Home to the Turner Bequest which includes 300 oil paintings and many thousands of sketches and watercolours, Tate Britain will present a major new exhibition dedicated to Turner later this year – Turner’s Modern World.
The new £20 note is the first to feature the signature of Sarah John, the Bank’s chief cashier.
She said: “Moving the £20 note to polymer marks a major step forward in our fight against counterfeiting. I am very grateful to everyone across the cash industry who has made this transition possible and I hope the public enjoy using their new Turner £20s.”
The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has been working with the Bank to make money accessible for people with sight loss.
The new note has tactile markings on it with three separate clusters of dots along the short edge to differentiate it from the £10 note, which has two clusters of dots. It is larger than both the £10 and £5 notes.
David Clarke, RNIB director of services, said: “Handling cash can often be a challenge if you’re blind or partially sighted, because it can be difficult to tell the difference between the different notes and coins. We hope the creation of these notes will help enable people with sight loss to use money more easily and with confidence.
“By incorporating tactile features on money, we are closer to creating a more inclusive society; it’s the small changes that can make a big difference to independent living.”
The Bank has said that polymer notes last longer than paper notes and remain in better condition.
But a previous freedom of information request by the PA news agency found that nearly 50 million plastic £5 and £10 notes have had to be replaced since they were launched by the Bank of England due to wear and damage.
Around 20 million of the Bank’s new polymer £5 notes were replaced in the first three years since they were introduced.
And about another 26 million £10 notes were replaced in the two years since they were launched in September 2017.
Alex Farquharson, director of Tate Britain, said: “We are thrilled that Turner is featured on the new £20 banknote.
“As one of Britain’s greatest artists – perhaps even the greatest – Turner is a key figure in the history of art.”
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