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Two pound coin with Queen:
Which portrait of Charles III.
comes on the coins?
Photo: Christian Ohde / imago images / Christian Ohde
The world is watching Britain these days with a mixture of interest and wonder as the transition from the late Queen Elizabeth II to the new King Charles III takes place.
is to be tracked.
The protocol and traditions followed in this procedure are rarely applied.
Nevertheless, everything seems to be precisely regulated down to the last detail.
So does this: Around 29 billion British coins are currently in circulation in Great Britain.
All of these coins feature the portrait of the Queen and all of these coins have the Queen looking to the right.
The portrait depicting the new King Charles III.
will appear on British coins in the future has not yet been selected.
But one thing is already certain: King Charles III.
will look to the left.
Because, as the British media know to report: Tradition requires that the line of sight of British monarchs also changes with every change on the throne.
It's a mammoth task for the Royal Mint as well as for the Bank of England: all British cash will be converted in the near future.
If Queen Elizabeth II was seen on it so far, it will be King Charles III in the future.
be.
This applies not only to the 29 billion coins for which the mint is responsible, but also to all British banknotes issued by the Bank of England.
According to the British media, there are a total of around 4.5 billion pound notes in circulation, with a total value of around 80 billion pounds.
Neither the mint nor the Bank of England have so far announced exactly how the changeover to the new coins and notes will take place.
Both institutions want to comment on this in more detail soon, when the time of mourning is over.
The only thing that is clear so far is that the current British cash with a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II will remain valid for the time being and will probably only be phased out gradually.
According to the British "Guardian", the exchange of banknotes alone should take at least two years.
So the British will probably carry two monarchs in their wallets for a long time.
This was not unusual in the past: for years, various queens and kings could be seen on British coins.
Only since a changeover in the early 1970s have there been coins exclusively with Queen Elizabeth II.
Coins featuring the late Queen first appeared in 1953, a year after she ascended the throne.
Since then there have been five different portraits of the Queen on the coins, the most recent being in 2015 when the Queen was 88 years old.
The Queen has only appeared on Great Britain's banknotes since 1960. Meanwhile, the Queen's portrait also adorns banknotes in various states of the British Commonwealth, such as Canada and Australia.
There, too, the responsible authorities will probably have new motifs with King Charles III.
think.
According to reports, consideration of new coins began in Australia shortly after the Queen's death.
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Commemorative coin for the 70th birthday:
Charles III.
appear on all new British coins
Photo: The Royal Mint
The question remains which image of King Charles III.
will make it onto British coins and notes in the future.
This can be a sensitive topic: As the "Guardian" also reports, the first portrait of the Queen on British banknotes in 1960 caused some resentment.
Today, the king's portrait would first be approved by Buckingham Palace, the newspaper said.
There may already be a clue: in 2018, the Royal Mint issued a coin in honor of the then Prince of Wales on the occasion of his 70th birthday.
However, Charles then looked to the right.
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