From The New Elizabethean Age to King Charles III

Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away on September 8, was the longest-serving monarch in the history of the United Kingdom, the country’s longest-serving female monarch and the world’s second-longest reigning monarch of all time after French King Louis IV.

She became queen in 1952 upon the passing of her father King George VI and was coronated in 1953, and the first UK coins bearing her image also appeared in 1953 about a year after she became queen. They featured the first of what the Royal Mint calls the five definitive portraits of her and were the creation of bas-relief sculptor Mary Gaskell Gillick. The coins with that portrait or effigy as they are also known, were the first to show her uncrowned and were the last used on the period that preceded the start of decimal coins in the 1970s.

As the Royal Mint stated after her passing, “The Royal Mint worked with Her Late Majesty throughout her reign – detailing her journey from new Queen to respected head of state across five coin portraits and ensuring each new UK coin received her personal seal of approval. The remarkable legacy of Britain’s longest serving monarch will live on for many years to come.”

Because the Queen serves as head of state not only for the UK but also for the countries of the Commonwealth, she has had a larger impact on modern coinage than anyone else if measured in terms of the many billions of coins featuring her image and the number of different countries that carried her portrait on their coins, which totaled at least 45 and set a Guiness Book world record. Some of those of those countries have used the same effigies on their coins as the UK was using at the time while others, especially Canada have developed their own portraits by their own artists.

In addition to all the circulating coins issued over the course of her 70-year reign that featured Queen Elizabeth II on them issued by Britain’s Royal Mint, which calls itself “the largest and most technically advanced integrated minting facility in the world” as well as “the original maker”, the Queen was also the subject of numerous commemorative coins issued by the UK and many Commonwealth nations.

Some of the more notable of those coins are those that were issued for anniversaries of her reign starting with those for her silver jubilee in 1977 when a special silver jubilee crown was issued and later in 2002 coins were issued for her golden jubilee, in 2012 for her diamond jubilee and in 2017 for her sapphire jubilee.

As for those definitive portraits, the second one by Arnold Machin was used on UK coins from 1968, Australian ones from 1966, New Zealand in 1967 and Canada from 1965. This was the first time the same one appeared on UK coins and those of certain colonies. It was used until 1984 and is believed to have been the one the Queen herself, who had to approve all royal portraits, preferred to the others.

Then from 1985 to 1997 the third effigy designed by Raphael Maklouf was used and showed her wearing the royal diadem or crown. In 1998 a portrait created by sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley debuted that was very different from its predecessors because it portrayed her realistically and showed her how she looked at the time at age 70.

Finally, in 2015 British artist Jody Clark became the fifth person to have their design approved for use on billions of UK coins. She is shown again wearing the crown and earrings without a necklace and appears to have a slight smile. More recently Clark created an effigy for Australia.

King Charles III

With the Queen’s death, many people around the world, including many who are not even coin collectors, want to know what happens next to UK coins. Are those with Queen Elizabeth withdrawn from circulation? When will coins with an image of the new King – Charles III – appear?

The short answers are that coins bearing portraits of Elizabeth will remain legal tender for an extended period of time as it would be totally impractical to withdraw billions of coins from circulation. Those coins will gradually be phased out. The transition to the coinage of King Charles III will be gradual, but it is likely they will begin appearing sometime in 2023. So far, the Royal Mint has not revealed any specific timetable, so collectors will need to be patient.

Before that a new portrait will need to be commissioned and created and then approved by both the new monarch and what is called the Royal Advisory Committee – an entity that reviews the designs for UK coinage and is similar to the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee. It was formed by King George V in 1922 to raise the artistic standard of British coinage and advise the monarch of the designs for British coins and medals. It was for a very long time headed by Prince Philip, the Queen’s husband, was passed away in April 2021.

An interesting aspect of the new coins with King Charles is that unlike those of his mother, which always showed her facing to the right, they are expected to show him facing to the left due to a tradition that began in the 1600s that is believed to be used in order to distinguish one monarch’s coins and paper currency from those of the prior one.

The one exception to this happened when King Edward VIII abdicated the same year in which he became king in 1936 and insisted that his coinage portrait face to the left like those of his predecessor. It is not known for sure why he required they be the same but may have been because he thought it was more flattering.

Be sure to check out our selection of coins with Queen Elizabeth II.