The Bank of England has unveiled designs for banknotes featuring the image of King Charles III, which are scheduled to enter circulation in mid-2024.
The Bank of England first announced the design on the eve of the coronation in May, saying the king’s likeness would appear on the existing designs of all four plastic banknotes currently in circulation – the £5, £10, £1020 and £50.
The king’s image will appear on the front of the banknote, as well as in a transparent security window made of polymer plastic on the banknote. Notes featuring Queen Elizabeth II will also remain legal tender, allowing the public to continue to use them normally.
Threadneedle Street said it had drawn up plans based on the Royal Family’s guidance to minimize the environmental and financial impact of the change and meet any overall increase in demand for money by printing only new notes to replace worn ones.
It said this would mean that notes featuring Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III would be “co-circulated”.
King Charles will become the second monarch to appear on the Bank of England’s UK banknotes. Although the Bank of England has produced banknotes since the late 1600s, the bank first issued a portrait of the reigning monarch in 1960, when the £1 note featuring Queen Elizabeth II was introduced into everyday use. However, coins have featured monarchs for centuries.
The queen’s face also appears on Canada’s $20 note, New Zealand and some other Commonwealth countries’ coins.
The use of physical money has steadily declined in recent years with the rise of bank cards and contactless payments. However, more than 4.7 billion Bank of England notes bearing the Queen’s face are still in circulation, worth an estimated £82 billion.
Since the introduction of the £5 note with Winston Churchill on the back in 2016, paper notes have been phased out and notes printed on polymer (a thin, flexible plastic material) have been introduced.
While the banknote design revealed by the Bank of England will feature a new portrait of the monarch, the reverse will remain the same, with author Jane Austen on the £10 note, artist JMW Turner on the £20 note and computer scientist Alan Turing on the £50 note. on banknotes. Security features including holograms and plastic windows will also remain the same.
The release of the note will be one of the most notable changes to the royal emblem since the Queen’s death in September; along with new coins, stamps and the King’s CR monogram for state documents and mailboxes.
Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, said: “I am extremely proud that the Bank of England has unveiled the design of our new banknote, which will feature King Charles III’s likeness. It is an important moment because the King is just The second monarch to appear on our banknotes. People will be able to use these new banknotes when they go into circulation in 2024.”
