King Charles III To Appear On Banknotes By Mid-2024

It’s a start of a new era for Britons as there will be lots of changes following the death of Queen Elizabeth. The Bank of England (BOE) informed the public on Tuesday (September 27) that new banknotes featuring the portrait of newly crowned King Charles III will come into circulation by mid-2024.

Reportedly, UK’s Central bank will soon reveal the image of the monarch that will be put up on the £5, £10, £20, and £50 notes.

“His Majesty’s portrait will appear on existing designs of all four polymer banknotes (£5, £10, £20, and £50). This will be a continuation of the current polymer series and no additional changes to the banknote designs will be made,” the British central bank said in a statement.

“New notes will only be printed to replace worn banknotes and to meet any overall increase in demand for banknotes,” it clarified.

The announcement comes nearly three weeks after Queen Elizabeth II’s death. The Queen reigned for 70 years and had her image on the UK notes since 1960 with the £1 note being the first paper currency to have her face.

While King Charles III will come up on the new polymer notes, the BOE has also announced that by September 30, about £6 billion in old £50 notes and more than £5 billion in old £20 notes will no longer be recognized by UK businesses. There are more than 360 million notes in all that will be taken out of circulation.

The decision to transition to polymer notes was made to increase the notes’ resistance to damage and fight illegal counterfeiting.

In the future, the synthetic notes will also be replaced to enable the distribution of notes carrying the image of King Charles III and to gradually phase out notes bearing the image of the late Queen.

Hence, people only have a small window to make use of their cash. The paper notes will be replaced by polymer £20 and £50 notes which have been in circulation for more than two years (since February 2020).

So far, £100 million worth of the notes has been deposited at Post Office branches. However, with the deadline fast approaching, the Britons worry that there isn’t sufficient time to replace the paper notes.