Licence to Print Money - Initial Ideas

I was initially undecided as to which banknote I should redesign. I started sketching out ideas of iconic buildings or objects that I could possibly use of England and of China since these are the main banknotes that I want to redesign. 

For the redesign of The Bank of England notes, I decided to look into iconic building in the UK as I am thinking that I could incorporate the buildings onto the notes. This is because for tourists, they would be more informed about famous architecture in England and so could learn about this whilst visiting. 

Other ideas I have for The Bank of England bank note is having the Royal Family on the design, so not just the Queen but also the new heirs on the design as it shows the different generations of Royalty. Another idea is to have other iconic figures on the banknotes instead of the Royal Family as it shows important historic people that have helped shape the UK such as Winston Churchill and writers such as Shakespeare as many people may forget that they should be appreciated too. The final for the English banknote is to have it so that it seems humorous. Famous British sports was also an idea as people would know that sports such as tennis (Wimbledon), football, cricket, polo and golf that may be distinct to the British culture. The idea is to use stereotypical English items that people from other counties associate Brits with such as red telephone boxes, London Underground, Tea, English Flag or slang terms.

For the Chinese Yuan, the idea that I'm thinking of doing is using the whole idea of Chinese New Year on the banknote; Chinese New Year is a very important event for all Chinese families wherever in the world they live or where they were born, every Chinese person will always celebrate this tradition. There are always huge parades in different countries, even in different cities where Chinese and non Chinese people would celebrate it and it's a huge gathering.

The idea that I thought of was to base the banknote on Chinese tradition/culture. The banknote would have the Chinese zodiac animals on the design in the order of which animal came first; this will be based on the most common Ancient Folklore of which animal came first in the swimming race to reach the Jade Emperor. In this case, the rat came first so the banknote which is the highest value (¥100) would have the rat on it. As the banknotes would gradually become decreasing in value, the other animals in order will be on the next bank note. The next banknote would be ¥50 so the OX will be on it since it came second.

I was however contemplating for a while whether to use the dragon as the animal on the ¥100 since this is what most people would associate with Chinese New Year. This idea was really persuasive to do as I understand how people would think that the dragon is main idea associated with the Chinese tradition. However, I realised that the dragon would make sense if tourists were using the banknotes but it actually would be the Chinese that will be using the banknotes so they may become confused as to why the dragon is on the banknote first instead of the rat. The rat idea seemed to be more sensible as Chinese people know their culture and they know the rat is the first animal in the Zodiac calendar.