Before being put into circulation in June, the new banknotes bearing the image of King Charles III are presented to the public from Wednesday as part of an exhibition organized in London by the Bank of England.
The four denominations - 5, 10, 20 and 50 pounds sterling - visible in the premises of the central bank display a portrait of the sovereign made public in 2013 and approved by the latter in 2022 after the death of his mother Elizabeth II.
Having reigned over the United Kingdom for 70 years and having been its first monarch to appear on banknotes, this is "the first time that the public has witnessed such a transition", underlines Jennifer Adam, the museum's curator. , from AFP.
This unprecedented change comes at a particular time: King Charles III, who announced he was suffering from cancer at the beginning of the month, has renounced his public commitments for the duration of his treatment.
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Tickets bearing the image of Elizabeth II will still be valid, with new ones “gradually replacing” those that have become too “old and worn” over time, according to Jennifer Adam.
“We will therefore have to wait a certain time” after their entry into circulation, on June 5, 2024, for those bearing the image of Charles to become widely distributed.
These new notes will also be made of polymer - more resistant and with a plastic texture - and not paper - like the other denominations issued in the United Kingdom since 2016.
Gradual replacement
Coins with the head of Charles III, based on a portrait made by the British sculptor Martin Jennings, have already been put into circulation in December 2022 and are provisionally present in this exhibition, “Future of money” (l future of money).
This allows us to discover, at the heart of this institution which has issued bank notes since its creation in 1694, that Elizabeth II was the first sovereign of the United Kingdom to appear on a denomination, namely, a bank note. 'one pound put into circulation in 1960.
From 1970 onwards, other historical figures included Prime Minister Winston Churchill (five books), nursing school founder Florence Nightingale (ten books), author William Shakespeare (twenty books) and mathematician Alan Turing ( 50 pounds) also appeared on the other side.
The Bank of England Museum also permanently houses centuries-old coins and gold bars - numbering around 400,000 in its vaults - as well as the first bank notes produced in the late Seventeenth century.
This exhibition, which runs until September 2025, also relates the gradual disenchantment with cash and the rise of virtual currencies in recent years.
She chronicles the decline in the use of banknotes in the UK, noting that they now make up only 14% of payments in 2022 compared to 55% in 2011. According to the museum, this figure could fall further to 7% d by 2032. The country has lost 15,000 ATMs and nearly 2,000 bank branches in the past five years.
Despite this, a law was passed last year aimed at protecting access to cash because, even today, almost a million people do not have a bank account.