More than a year after the passing of his mother Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles III will shortly be depicted on Australian coins, according to officials in Canberra.
According to Royal Australian Mint CEO Leigh Gordon, the gold Australian dollar coin would be the first to feature a picture of the new British monarch, who is also Australia’s head of state.
By Christmas, he predicted that 10 million of the dollar coins will be in circulation.
Following the death of the queen in September of last year, the government did not want to hasten the currency transition, according to Assistant Minister for the Treasury Andrew Leigh.We definitely want to distribute as many of the new coins bearing the image of the king as soon as we can, Leigh said.
Depending on bank demand, the remaining coin denominations (5, 10, 20, 50, and $2) will be introduced in 2024 with the king’s left profile and without a crown.
The most recent queen shown was crowned. Tradition dictated that the queen’s right profile be displayed.
All British Commonwealth nations may use the king’s image, which was created as the official Commonwealth effigy with the king’s approval by The Royal Mint in London.Since 1966, when Australia began using decimal money, 15.5 billion Australian coins bearing the image of the queen have been produced. Since 1953, she has been depicted on Australian currency.
The government came under fire for choosing an Indigenous design over an image of the king to replace the queen’s appearance on the $5 note this year.
Australia’s only extant banknote with a portrait of the monarch was the $5 bill.
Critics interpreted it as a component of the center-left Labor Party administration’s plan to install an Australian president in place of the British queen as head of state of Australia.
Leigh stated that there was no intention to have the monarch removed off Australian coinage.
