Gareth Southgate, Danny Dyer and Nicki Minaj among rejected nominees for new £50 note

The Bank of England announced last November that the new plastic £50 note will feature a prominent British scientist, and the public were asked for nominations.

At the end of last year the Bank published a list of 991 eligible nominations for the new note, including physicist Stephen Hawking and Margaret Thatcher, who was a chemist before she became Prime Minister. The Bank is now making its final decision about who will be on the new note. 

But MoneySavingExpert has now obtained a list of over 2,000 other names which were put forward in the first week of the consultation before being judged ineligible. As well as the four listed above, rejected names included fictional characters such as Beaker from the Muppets, Postman Pat, Darth Vader and Garfield.

Also suggested were dozens of politicians including Nigel Farage and Nicola Sturgeon, a handful of monarchs such as Henry VIII and Mary I, and one person who nominated themself, before helpfully clarifying this by adding "(me)" after their nomination.

For more info on the new note, see our New £50 to be launched MSE News story.