King Charles III likeness to start appearing on UK money

King Charles III’s likeness will start appearing on UK money in the UK immediately, although there is no rush to call in any tender with Queen Elizabeth II’s face, which will remain valid.

There is a wealth of precedent to suggest that this may persist for quite some time. According to the Royal Mint coins with Queen Victoria’s likeness from the 1860s were still in use until 1971 when the UK’s currency system was updated.

In terms of paper money, however, there is less comparison to draw from. “Although bank notes began to be issued from the late seventeenth century, they did not come to pre-dominate over coins until the nineteenth century,” Buckingham Palace says. “Only since 1960 has the British Sovereign been featured on English Bank notes, giving the Queen a unique distinction above previous monarchs.”

Coins have been marked with the image of rulers since the first empires in ancient times. The Royal Household at Buckingham Palace reckons English kings began putting their names on coins as far back as the year 800. King Athelstan, who died in 939, became the first English monarch whose image was shown on coins.

“For many people, the king’s image on coins was the only likeness of the monarch which they were likely to see in the lifetimes,” the Royal Household added.

We will be updating all our coin and note acceptors on fruit machines, jukeboxes and pool tables in pubs and clubs to take the new update money so your customers can carry on playing with no fuss. We had to do the same updates when we switched over to polymer notes only a few years ago.