FOR SEVEN decades Britons had daily contact with their queen, as they handled notes and coins bearing Elizabeth II’s face. When Elizabeth died in September 2022 she was succeeded on the throne by Charles III. The first coins showing his portrait entered circulation that year. The first proper release of banknotes with his likeness took place early on June 5th, when the keenest notaphilists queued outside the Bank of England to exchange the mother’s currency for the son’s. First among them was Chris Nield, who arrived at lunchtime on June 4th and spent the night sitting on a folding chair in order to be the first to swap up to £300 ($380) into “very historic” new notes. The king’s image will be a less common part of everyday life than Elizabeth’s was, however, and not just because his reign will be shorter.
Monarchs have appeared on British coinage since antiquity. But Elizabeth was the first royal to feature on all paper-currency denominations. During her long reign her image was redrawn five times. The first was used on a £1 note issued in 1960, eight years after her accession in 1952. Her most recognisable currency portrait was issued in 1990, when she was 64; it continued to appear on all notes until her death at the age of 96. Charles, too, is likely to remain captured in perpetual late-middle age. Although the king was 73 on the day of his coronation, the image on the new banknotes is based on a photograph taken ten years before.
