I think it was probably too early for Hawking on the £50 anyway - it's more for historical figures. I can't be bothered to check but I think Churchill is the most recently alive person to ever be featured.

You are indeed right, though being pedantic, QE2 is still alive ;-D Nan Shepard and the Queen Mother have also been included on short-lived commemorative notes in Scotland only.

The Queen being on the other side is something different - she is always featured there and isn’t selected.

> isn’t selected

I chuckled.

OTH, you'll see the coin much more often.

To put it mildly. For readers not in the UK: cashpoint machines do not give out £50 notes so if you want to get one you'll have to visit a bank and ask specially. Visiting a bank is rather difficult these days unless you are unemployed and live in a city centre and even then you might find it boarded up after the latest ram raid.

Not entirely true.

I was on a night out years ago for a friend's birthday, who, for whatever reason had chosen to have it at the Casino under the Empire cinema on Leicester square. The cashpoint there only gave out £50 notes. This is when I realised I couldn't afford this birthday party.

I expect that cash point was run by the casino and gave out 50s to encourage impulsive gamblers to bet even more money than they might otherwise plan to. On the other hand most cash points are owned by banks/supermarkets who would rather not have to deal with a wide circulation of £50 notes because they tend to be more likely to be forged (but maybe that’s just because they aren’t in common circulation) so require more time to check.

Just as a side note, plenty of banks and building societies are open on a Saturday.

In my town exactly one of the four bank branches are open on Saturday. Its the main one in the town center and then only until 12:30....

They are very commonly used by tourists to the UK who've exchanged cash.

A very small number of cashpoints in London dispense them.

Visiting a bank for a 50 seems like a waste of £7

989 people met the criteria based on public nominations, you can read the list here https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/banknotes/...

I know they have to be dead to be considered but I think it stinks that Sophie Wilson never gets much of a mention anywhere near the public sphere despite the immensely broad reach of her work.

Funny that Brits don't see £50 notes that often. Most of the time £50 notes are used by foreigners (tourists or whatnot).

I always say that $100 never feels like as much money as when you're trying to spend a $100 bill. I'm guessing it's similar for a £50 note.

I'm hoping for Mary Anning, personally. Local hero.

There are better choices for a historical scientist, such as Newton, Darwin, Bacon or Dalton. Hawking was popular in the niche circles but it's safe to assume that many people, even in the UK, would be unfamiliar with him. And shoehorning an obscure woman scientist in there just because she's female is an insult to the achievements all the women who excel in science and other fields.

Hawking is a household name in the UK.

Not just in the UK. I would wager he's a household name in many houses the entire world over. His contribution to making physics accessible to everyone is... I fail to locate a word of sufficient magnitude to describe just how important and what an inspiration he was.

What if they picked a prominent female scientist?

Also, there was a theatrically released biopic for Hawking and he was featured on an episode of the Simpsons, I think he's pretty mainstream.

Did he ever find out more about that donut-shaped universe?

I would say there is a case for James Clark Maxwell, he's largely not remembered by people outside physics and electrical engineering.

Darwin was already used on tenner, Newton on the £1 note.