How does putting King Charles on Canadian money make people feel? It’s a coin toss

Canada’s currency is getting a facelift — literally.

To mark the coronation of King Charles III, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed Saturday that Canadian coins and $20 bills will be updated with the image of the new monarch, replacing that of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth.

Trudeau said he has asked the Royal Canadian Mint to create an effigy of His Majesty to appear on the obverse, or “head”, side of Canadian coins in circulation. He also confirmed that he has asked the Bank of Canada to update the $20 bill — the only Canadian banknote that still has the royal face — during the next design process.

Canada is not obliged to put in the king’s money, but it is a tradition. While the new look may be a welcome change for monarchists, history buffs or currency collectors, many Canadians are unhappy that King Charles is head of state and may not care to see his face on their wallets. .

Angus Reid Institute poll performed before the coronation showed that on average only 38 percent of respondents wanted to see new authorities on coins and bills. Support is highest in Ontario and the Prairie provinces, and lowest in Quebec.

Sixty percent of respondents were opposed to even recognizing Charles as King, according to the same poll. Just 28 percent said they had a favorable view of Charles, while nearly half (48 percent) did not.

Time for a change

Canada has been minting and minting money in the likeness of its sovereign since 1908, when the Royal Canadian Mint began producing coins. The Bank of Canada only started issuing paper money in 1935.

Alex Reeves, a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mint, said this will be the first time Canadians aged 65 or younger will see significant changes.

It is also an important moment for those working on the update. “You can’t help but feel like you’re a witness to history,” he told CBC News.

“To be able to be a part of the transformation of our currency – and to create a design that will be well executed and will serve Canadian coins for years to come – is a special moment.”

Reeves said there will be other differences that Canada should look out for. First, King Charles will face the left side of the new coin, after it is minted, while the image of his mother appears on the right.

Changing directions is a tradition that dates back centuries in British royal history, to distinguish the reign of one monarch from the next.

There will also be a new inscription surrounding the statue of the king: It will be changed from “DG Regina (Queen of God’s Grace), meaning “By the Grace of God, Queen” in Latin, for “Rex,” meaning “King.”

Reeves could not offer a timeline for when the new coins will be minted, but said the Mint would like to get them into circulation as soon as possible.

The Crown company, he said, has “teams in place and processes mapped out” in anticipation of this moment.

The Mint will select an original portrait created by one of the “inclusive field” of artists employed by the institution, he said, and, if approved by the Canadian government and Buckingham Palace, the dye will be produced to strike the King’s image on the coin. of each denomination, and production can begin.

Although the new minting will see hundreds of millions of coins in all denominations produced, there is no need to remove the coins with the effigy of Queen Elizabeth, because they will remain legal tender.

In fact, the mint wants to get as much use out of coins already in circulation as it produces new coins at a cost and with a low carbon footprint, Reeves said, noting that a coin’s life cycle is about 20 years.

The moment was recorded

Stephen Woodland, president of the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association, an organization for coin collectors, is waiting to hear more about what the Mint has in store for the coins. But when it comes to the new $20 bill, he said there will be a lot of excitement about the redesign.

“Coin collectors are looking forward to this important event and will no doubt be actively seeking to collect notes for their collections,” Woodland said in an email.

But it’s not just the usual green polymer notes that come out of ATMs.

Collectors will be on the lookout for “notes with different serial prefixes, special serial numbers, different plate numbers and, of course, any errors that have escaped circulation,” he said.

But it will probably have to wait a while. The Bank of Canada is still in the process of redesigning the new $5 note, which begins in 2020. Like the recently redesigned $10 bill, the $5 bill will feature famous Canadians rather than monarchs or past political leaders.

The Bank of Canada has a short list eight “bankNOTE-can Canada” the contenders to be the new face of the blue bill, narrowed down from a field of more than 600 qualified people nominated by members of the public.

But the decision to retain the British crown on at least one banknote keeps with a tradition that began when the central bank first issued banknotes nearly 90 years ago.

Canada was the first country to feature Queen Elizabeth II’s effigy on its currency, the $20 note in 1935, when she was eight years old. He is a fixture on all Canadian coins from 1953, the year of his coronation, and paper money in 1954.

A face of symbolism

The decision to include a portrait of King Charles on banknotes and coins was largely symbolic. But although the symbolic details may reflect the relationship between the state and the monarchy, so does the level of public support for the institution.

“Different countries will approach it differently, depending on the level of attachment to the monarchy and the strength of the republican movement in each country,” Jonathan Malloy, professor of political science at Carleton University in Ottawa, told The Canadian Press, referring. for a campaign that sought to separate the country from its relationship with the Crown.

In the Caribbean, many countries are grappling with conversations about what role the monarchy should play. Barbados, for example, is cutting ties with the British monarch as head of state in 2021. Other Caribbean countries that are still members of the Commonwealth have not said whether King Charles will be depicted on bills and coins.

However, the Antigua Observer reported earlier this year that Timothy NJ Antoine, governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, which is the monetary authority for the group of eight island economies, said there was “no appetite” for royal changes. money.

But Canada may be an outlier among Commonwealth nations with closer ties to monarchies, namely Australia and New Zealand.

Australia is going revamp its coins, but has decided not to replace Queen Elizabeth with her son when renewing the $5 note. However, the Reserve Bank of Australia aims to respect Indigenous culture and history in its design. New Zealand can bide its time. The country says it will be several years before it needs to renew its coins and possibly even longer for banknotes.

the last poll in New Zealand found that 44 per cent of respondents would support keeping the constitutional monarchy if a referendum is held, while the same number believe that the monarchy is “part of the colonial era that has no place in the country.”

The UK, of course, is already in the process of changing its currency. The banknotes will not be launched until mid-2024, according to the Bank of England. Royal Mint began producing and distributing coins with the effigy of King Charles last year.