The portrait of Charles III will appear on the £ 5, £ 10, £ 20, and £ 50 banknotes issued by the Bank of England. The banknotes bearing the portrait of Elizabeth II will continue to circulate.
The Bank of England issued a statement saying, "This approach is in line with the guidance of the royal family and can minimize environmental and financial impacts as much as possible. This means that the public will gradually see the newly issued King Charles III banknotes."
Although the portraits of monarchs in England began to appear on local coins over 1000 years ago, the first British monarch to allow their portraits to appear on paper currency was Elizabeth II.
Shortly after the circulation of coins bearing the portrait of Charles III in the UK, the relevant authorities announced the design of the new version of the banknotes in December 2022. Except for the replacement of the monarch's portrait, the design of the pound note has remained largely unchanged.
In recent years, due to consumer preference for debit cards and other electronic payment methods, cash usage in the UK has sharply declined.
According to the statistics of the British Retail Association, more than half of store transactions were completed in cash in 2014, which dropped to 15% in 2021, and then rebounded to 19% in 2022 under the partial impact of the COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control measures.
Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said on June 5th, "As long as there is demand from the public, we will always provide paper money. Bringing these new banknotes into circulation reflects our efforts to fulfill this promise."