MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

New banknotes depicting King Charles III unveiled

The new banknotes are expected to start circulating in mid-2024

The Bank of England has released specimens of the new bills portraying King Charles III instead of his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, which are due to enter circulation in mid-2024.

 In the meantime, banknotes with the Queen's image will remain legal tender and shall only be withdrawn when damaged, so as to minimize the environmental and economic impact, it was reported.

“The king's portrait will appear on the existing models of the four banknotes” of 5, 10, 20, and 50 pounds, “with no further modifications” in their design, the bank announced in a statement.

Charles III's face will appear in place of his mother's on the front of the banknotes and in the form of a medallion on the banknotes' transparent security window. The portrait is an engraving made from a photo “provided by the royal family in 2013″ and has been finalized in recent months, with the approval of the monarch, according to a spokesman for the Bank of England.

The polymer banknotes, which have been replacing paper money in the UK since 2016, will be produced on a large scale from the first half of 2023 and will enter circulation the following year, it was announced.

The first coins with the effigy of Charles III entered into circulation in early December, after the British Royal House unveiled in September the first units with the king's portrait.

Following tradition, the king's portrait faces to the left, in the opposite direction from that of his mother. ”Charles has followed the general tradition we have in British coinage, going back to Charles II, of the monarch facing in the opposite direction to his predecessor,” said Chris Barker at the Royal Mint Museum.