The Bank of England will issue banknotes bearing the likeness of King Charles for the first time on Wednesday.
The monarch’s portrait will appear on £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes and in line with guidance from the Royal Household, they will be slowly introduced. To minimise the financial and environmental impact of the change, with new King Charles notes will only be printed to replace worn ones featuring her late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth.
“This means the public will begin to see the new King Charles III notes very gradually,” said the Bank.
Although Queen Elizabeth notes will remain legal tender, the Bank will allow people to swap up to £300 of them per person via its postal exchange service for the new King Charles notes. It will stop the service on June 30.
The Bank’s counter at its Threadneedle Street headquarters in the City will only issue the King Charles notes until June 11.
The new notes were designed by De La Rue, the 210-year old banknote printer and passport manufacturer. Last week it said that it was in talks with a number of parties about buying its businesses.
Chairman Clive Whiley said that since his appointment 12 months ago, De La Rue has looked a “broad range” of options, including selling one or both of its businesses. “Discussions with the relevant parties are advancing and we expect to update further at the time of the full year results in July,” he said.
Although usage of physical money has fallen with the rise of digital payments, De La Rue said that its currencies division is winning new contracts and is seeing a “recovering market for banknotes”. Over the last 12 months, the value of the unit’s order book had grown from £137million to £239millon.
