The King Charles III banknotes’ design was presented today by the Bank of England. All four bank notes (the £5, £10, £20, and £50) will include the King’s portrait, with no additional alterations to the current designs.
The notes will be put into use by the middle of 2024 and will progressively replace the ones that have been in circulation since 1960, featuring Charles’s late mother, Queen Elizabeth II. The bank notes, which are composed of polymer plastic, will have the image of the King on the front and also in the transparent security window. People are said to continue using notes bearing the image of Queen Elizabeth II as usual since they will continue to be considered legal currency.
Highlights
The King’s face, crafted by the sculptor Martin Jennings, is already on the coinage produced by the Royal Mint, which issues coins for the UK. The Queen’s visage can be found on the 27 billion coins that are currently in use, and when they deteriorate they will be replaced.
Beginning in 1960, Queen Elizabeth was the first and only monarch to be depicted on actual Bank of England banknotes. However, the monarch has been shown on coins for many years. The Queen is not shown on the notes that Scottish and Northern Irish banks have printed.
Along with some $20 Canadian banknotes, New Zealand coins and other Commonwealth countries also have the Queen’s likeness on them.
The total value of the approximately 4.7 billion Bank of England notes currently in circulation is £82 billion ($99.8 billion). The Debden Printing Works, a high-security facility in Essex, has been producing them since 1956. According to the Bank of England, in order to reduce the environmental and financial effects of the transition, the new notes would only be issued to replace damaged notes or to satisfy rising demand, as instructed by the Royal family.
King Charles III Banknote Designs Revealed by Bank of England
Despite the addition of a new face of King Charles III, the reverse side of the new note designs, which the Bank unveiled today, will continue to include the author Jane Austen on the £10 note, the artist JMW Turner on the £20 note, and mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing on the £50 note. Holograms and plastic glass—the two security measures, will also not change.
The governor of the Bank, Andrew Bailey, said in a statement that he was quite happy and proud with the Bank announcing the design of new banknotes, which will include a likeness of King Charles III. The King is only the second monarch to appear on one of our banknotes, he said, therefore this is a major occasion.
Post offices all around the nation have already started to distribute fifty pence coins with the portrait of King Charles III. About half of the total quantity planned for circulation—4.9 million of the new coins—are being supplied to post offices to be used as change for clients.
In recent years, as contactless and card payments have become more popular, the use of actual currency has progressively decreased. Following the introduction of the £5 note with a portrait of Winston Churchill on the reverse side in 2016, paper notes have gradually been eliminated and replaced with those printed on polymer, a thin and flexible plastic element.
The introduction of new notes, together with new coins, stamps, and King Charles III’s monogram that will appear on official papers and postboxes, will nevertheless rank as among the most notable modifications to royal emblems since the Queen’s passing in September.
King Charles III’s Coronation
The coronation of King Charles III will take place at Westminster Abbey in London on Saturday, May 6, 2024. The King and Camilla, the Queen Consort, will both be crowned at the ceremony. With a greater diversity of religions represented, it will probably be shorter and smaller in scope than Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953.
Reports are also being surfaced claiming Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have also been invited for the coronation. It was just a week before, that some British elites expressed their views on not wanting the couple to attend the coronation, after the release of their Netflix docuseries.
