The Bank of England has unveiled the new design for banknotes that feature the image of King Charles.
The only change to the current designs of the £5, £10, £20, and £50 notes will be the portrait, which will go into circulation in the middle of 2024.
The King’s portrait will appear on new notes on the front and in the transparent security window.
After the new notes start to circulate, old notes will still be accepted in stores.
Beginning in 1960, Queen Elizabeth was the first and only monarch to be depicted on circulating Bank of England banknotes. The monarch is not shown on the notes that Scottish and Northern Irish banks have issued.
There are about 4.5 billion individual Bank of England notes worth about £80bn in circulation at present.
The Bank of England said that, following guidance from the Royal household, the new notes would only be printed to replace worn notes or to meet increased demand, in order to minimise the environmental and financial impact of the change.
Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, said he was “proud” of a “significant moment” with the new design.
Fifty pence coins bearing the image of King Charles III have already entered circulation via post offices across the country.
An estimated 4.9 million of the new coins are being distributed to post offices – about half of the total number earmarked for circulation – to be given in change to customers.
Coins carrying the image of the late Queen will still be accepted in shops, in the same way as banknotes.
For anyone taking part in a family Christmas quiz this year, it is worth remembering that, in ascending order, the reverse side of current polymer Bank of England banknotes feature Sir Winston Churchill, Jane Austen, JMW Turner and Alan Turing.
Cash use has become far less frequent when compared to debit cards, owing primarily to the use of contactless payments and then accelerated by the Covid pandemic. The buying power of specific coins and banknotes have also been diluted by rising prices.
However, there is still keen interest from consumers and collectors about the images used on cash.
Collectors will be particularly excited to get their hands on the lowest serial numbers of the new King Charles banknotes when they appear.
Source: BBC.com