Gandhi On Uk Currency

[fender62]

and gandhi did mmm what for britain? to get his face on currency, would he think it was crass, as he walked around in rags...poverty and all that.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8586361/Mahatma-Gandhi-set-non-white-person-British-currency.html

[ichkeria]

I agree with NJ and with Jim. Gandhi is an utterly bizarre choice. He was notoriously racist for one thing, although arguably he did the British a favour by helping them extricate themselves from Indian misrule.

[New Judge]

//Out of interest, which (BAME) British people, on their own merits, should feature on an issue of coins?//

None.

Coins should have "heads" (the Monarch's) on one side only. The other should be "tails" such as a national emblem, coat-of-arms or similar. Don't know where this idea of putting commoners' images on coins and banknotes stems from. The earliest coin I can recall is the "Churchill Crown", though I imagine there were others earlier. I was pleased to receive one of these as my annual "beer money" from my school. Pupils in the year I was in then were entitled to five shillings and it was decided to pay that in the form of the Crown. That, though, although legal tender, was a commemorative coin rather than one intended for general circulation. I still have mine.

[Jackdaw33]

I had a crown (lost now) for the Queen's coronation in 1953.

[sevenOP]

"Coins should have "heads" (the Monarch's) on one side only. The other should be "tails" such as a national emblem, coat-of-arms or similar."

Why ?

"Don't know where this idea of putting commoners' images on coins and banknotes stems from."

The value of money changes, society changes, but this vassalage mentality seems entrenched in many.

[HansUrbancka]

A Sex Weirdo on Coins of the Realm. What next..Murderers perhaps.

Hans.

[Mamyalynne]

I rather like this quote from Nehru.

//In 1962, when British filmmaker Richard Attenborough began researching what would become his 1982 Gandhi film, he asked Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, how he should portray his late colleague. Nehru famously replied that Gandhi was "a great man, but he had his weaknesses, his moods and his failings." He begged Attenborough not to turn Gandhi into a saint. He was "much too human," Nehru said.//

[New Judge]

It's nothing to do with subordination or vassalage. Coins and banknotes need to retain some credibility. Putting somebody like the latest winner of "Britain's Got Talent" on a coin would do nothing to maintain that credibility. Most countries' coinage contains images of its constitutional leader, be it Monarch, President or whatever. The enduring feature of the UK is its Monarchy. It bestows an image of stability and that is a very important feature of any currency. Of course it's the Crown rather than the Monarch her/himself that provides that stability so by all means stick a Crown on our coins if you prefer. Just not the image of some arguably divisive agitator who was briefly in the news seventy or eighty years ago. Or anybody similar for that matter.

[webbo3]

A Hindu on a banknote containing tallow, a bit ironic
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/aug/10/bank-of-england-to-keep-animal-fat-in-banknotes-despite-complaints

[tomus42]

It's a ridiculous idea, but with it being the Mail it's probably not happening anyway, so don't worry about it.

[Mamyalynne]

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/uk/uk-considering-a-coin-to-commemorate-indias-mahatma-gandhi/articleshow/77312726.cms

[tomus42]

That looks like it's copied from the Mail article Mamya, because alot of the words are the same.

[Mamyalynne]

I see, still convinced it's a fabrication of the Mail?

[HansUrbancka]

It's World News :-

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-india-gandhi/uk-considering-a-coin-to-commemorate-mahatma-gandhi-idUKKBN24X44X

Hans.

[AZardoz]

@webbo
Problem with tallow, eh? Is it preventing them from eating the notes?

[webbo3]

did you click on my link, the one about complaints

[AZardoz]

I did. Considering all the other products, perhaps they should just put on a dhoti & go home.
I'm so fed up with this nonsense.

[douglas9401]

Support for the tallow ban was never that great in the UK.

[bednobs]

its a coin as I understand it, not a not

[bednobs]

note

[sevenOP]

" Of course it's the Crown rather than the Monarch her/himself that provides that stability so by all means stick a Crown on our coins if you prefer."

What exactly are you saying here ?

'The Crown' is symbolised by the reigning monarch, how a circular ornamental headdress provides stability escapes me. (Perhaps it would stabilise a wig.)

'Market forces' determine the stability of a currency not a monarchical system.

"By AD 800 coins regularly bore the names of the kings for whom they were struck. A natural development was the representation of their own images on their coins.

Coinage played a part in spreading the fame of kings - the more often coins passed through men's hands, and the further afield they were taken by plunder or trade, the more famous their Royal sponsors became. Athelstan (d. 939) is the first English king to be shown on his coins wearing a crown or circlet." - official web site of Lizzie's Royal Family
https://www.royal.uk/coinage-and-bank-notes

Some say advertising aids indoctrination, but I am not sure if 'commoners' would agree.