Black faces wanted on UK banknotes

Dave Hinz wrote:
On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 22:07:28 +0000, Tony Clayton wrote:
In a recent message "oly" wrote:

Methinks definetely Francis Barber.


Could someone kindly say WHO Francis Barber is, and
why he should appear on a UK banknote.

google "francis barber" - click on "I'm feeling lucky" if you want.

Exactly. Why spoon feed the mentally lazy? - look it up on the
internet, for pete's sakes - you're already there!

There are pages and pages about Francis Barber and the man he worked
for. Both positive and negative opinions! And it's a 250th
anniversary in 2005 of another related topic.

Intolerantly yours,

oly

P.S. The topic related to Francis Barber and his employer has already
been the subject of a 2005 dated commemorative coin!

oly

In a recent message "oly" wrote:


Dave Hinz wrote:
On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 22:07:28 +0000, Tony Clayton wrote:
In a recent message "oly" wrote:

Methinks definetely Francis Barber.


Could someone kindly say WHO Francis Barber is, and
why he should appear on a UK banknote.

google "francis barber" - click on "I'm feeling lucky" if you want.

Exactly. Why spoon feed the mentally lazy? - look it up on the
internet, for pete's sakes - you're already there!

There are pages and pages about Francis Barber and the man he worked
for. Both positive and negative opinions! And it's a 250th
anniversary in 2005 of another related topic.

Intolerantly yours,

oly


Oh dear. We are all very touchy today. However, you have totally
missed the point of what I was trying to say. I was trying to
get somebody to say WHY he should appear on a UK banknote.

I have looked him up on Google, but I am still not clear as to
why he merits being put on a Bank of England banknote, in terms
of what he did for the nation (or the Bank of England!!).

He certainly had a remarkable life for the time, but was he really
a national figure, in the way that Florence Nightingale, Charles Dickens,
or Elizabeth Fry (or Nelson Mandela, in a totally different context)
all were? I do not think so.

To be frank, I care not a hoot for the colour of anybody's skin.
It is the person and their achievements on behalf of
their friends and compatriots that should count in
this world.

--
Tony Clayton
Coins of the UK : http://www.coinsoftheuk.info
Sent using RISCOS on an Acorn Strong Arm RiscPC
.... The worst thing about censorship is ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ.

Francis Barber has been ranked among the 100 most prominent black
Britains on many occasions. His "success" in this life was not so much
what he did as a servant, a secretary and an educator, but that he did
it all 250 years ago, when black Britons were practically unknown and
those who did live there were generally deemed to be non-persons.

In America, we did a silver dollar coin with an image of "Crispus
Attucks", a mulatto seaman who probably did live in Boston about the
same time, but beyond the circumstance of his death, we really know
next to nothing about the man. Barber is a more substantial historical
personage than Attucks.

Also, there exists a beautiful pastel drawing of Barber, that would be
highly suited for use on a British banknote.

oly