LONDON – As Britain has healed from mourning for its queen in recent months, the beginnings of a new government are starting to show in the country’s daily life.
The England World Cup team sang “God Save the King”. For the first time in decades, a king welcomed a new prime minister. As Britons prepare for the first Christmas without Queen Elizabeth II’s traditional message, the Bank of England has announced another big change.
On Monday, it unveiled new pound notes with the portrait of King Charles III that are expected to enter circulation in mid-2024.
The new £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes will only be printed to replace worn-out currency or to meet increasing demand, so banknotes depicting the late Queen and the current King will be at the same time.
The announcement marked yet another page in Britain’s history, with King Charles taking his mother’s place on the throne and the rituals and symbols attesting to the royal family’s presence in everyday life.
“This is an important moment,” the bank’s governor, Andrew Bailey, said in a statement, adding that King Charles was only the second monarch to appear on the pound notes.
Pound notes were first issued in the late 17th century, but the British sovereign has only appeared on them since 1960, with Queen Elizabeth II being the first monarch to appear. The first notes featured a portrait of the Queen wearing the family’s diamond diadem.
“It was a formal, regal image and was criticized for being a serious and unrealistic likeness,” the Bank of England said.
A second portrait by another designer was better received, because people thought the portrait was more realistic and she looked “more relaxed”, according to the bank. Other portraits were introduced later, but the most familiar to most Britons is the one with a more mature queen, drawn in 1990. The same portrait continued to appear after 2016, when the bills were printed on plastic instead of paper.
Since the 17th century, monarchs have been depicted on coins facing the opposite direction of their immediate predecessor, so King Charles faces to the left, while his mother faces to the right.
The banknotes do not seem to be subject to the same tradition, as the monarchs are depicted from the front.
In recent years, Britain has paid tribute to some of its prestigious national figures by introducing currency with former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the novelist Jane Austen, the painter JMW Turner and the mathematician Alan Turing.
The Royal Mint, the official maker of British coins, also announced the creation of £5 and 50 pence coins featuring the King’s effigy, created by sculptor Martin Jennings. They will not replace Queen Elizabeth’s coins in order to “minimize the environmental and financial impact of the change of monarch,” the Royal Mint said.
