London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, Aug 22, 2026

Royal rebranding: What will happen to stamps, coins, banknotes and passports?

Royal rebranding: What will happen to stamps, coins, banknotes and passports?

All 29 billion coins in circulation in the UK have the Queen's head on them. The most recent design dates from 2015, when she was 88 years old. It was the fifth coin portrait created during her reign.

The Royal Mint won't say how or when it will start issuing coins with King Charles III's head on them, but it's likely that the Queen's coins will remain in circulation for many years, and that the process to replace them will be a gradual one.

Before all British coins were updated for decimalization in 1971, it was quite normal to find multiple monarchs on your change.

While we don't know what the King's coin portrait will look like, a coin issued in 2018 by the Royal Mint to commemorate his 70th birthday gave us a hint.

And one thing that seems certain is that he will be shown facing the other way — to the left. Tradition dictates that the direction in which the monarch faces on coins must alternate for each new monarch.

Once signed off by the government, new designs will be manufactured at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant, south Wales.

The first banknote to carry a portrait of the Queen was the one pound note in 1960 The Queen has appeared on all Bank of England notes since 1960 (notes issued by Scottish and Northern Irish banks do not depict the monarch).

There are about 4.5 billion individual Bank of England notes worth about £80 billion in circulation at the moment and, as with coins, these will be gradually phased out.

All notes and coins will remain legal tender. The Bank of England will give lots of notice if that is to change.

Stamps and postboxes


Since 1967, all stamps issued by the Royal Mail have featured an embossed silhouette of the side profile of Queen Elizabeth II.

Royal Mail will now stop producing Queen Elizabeth II stamps — although they can still be used on letters and parcels — and will begin the process to create new ones.

The Royal Mail issued these commemorative stamps to mark the Prince of Wales' 70th birthday in 2018.

The new King has featured on stamps before, but Royal Mail won't yet say what the new designs with him will look like.

As well as putting the monarch on stamps, the Royal Mail puts royal cyphers on many postboxes.

More than 60% of the UK's 115,000 postboxes carry the EIIR mark of Queen Elizabeth II - E for Elizabeth and R for Regina, which means queen. In Scotland, they feature the Scottish crown.

Outside Scotland, any new postboxes will now feature the King's cypher — but as the number of new boxes installed is quite low, it could be some time before you spot one of these.

Royal seal of approval


From tomato ketchup to packets of cereal to perfume, chances are you will have seen the Royal Arms alongside the words, "By appointment to Her Majesty the Queen" on some of your groceries or other items in your home.

These are products, which have been granted a Royal Warrant, meaning that the company who makes them supplies the Royal Households on a regular basis.

A Royal Warrant label on a bottle of sauce


For the last century or so the monarch, their consort and heir have each issued their own Royal Warrants — making them grantors — and there are currently about 900 Royal Warrants held by 800 companies.

When a grantor dies, any Royal Warrants they issued become void and the company has two years to stop using the Royal Arms. (Exceptionally, warrants issued by the Queen Mother stood for five years after her death.)

The warrants Charles has issued as Prince of Wales will continue now that he is King because they go with the household, not the title.

There is an expectation that the new King will now grant his son and heir, Prince William, the ability to issue his own warrants.

Passports still valid


But it's not just money, stamps and warrants that need updating.

All British passports are issued in the name of Her Majesty and are still valid for travel, but for new passports, the wording on the inside of the front cover will be updated to His Majesty.

Some police forces in England and Wales that still feature the royal cypher of Queen Elizabeth II in the center of their helmet plates will have to make changes. Barristers and solicitors who have been appointed by the monarch to be Queen's Counsel will now be known as King's Counsel with immediate effect.

And finally, the national anthem will have its words changed from "God Save the Queen".

After Charles is officially proclaimed King in a formal ceremony, a public announcement will be made from the balcony at St James's Palace, including the call: "God Save the King".

The national anthem will then be played.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
The rise and fall of Hui Ka Yan, China’s richest man
Woke: Britain Considers Plain Packaging for Cigars as Specialist Shops Warn of Industry Collapse
Britain's Public-Service Productivity Remains Below 2019 as £80 Billion Output Gap Fuels WFH Debate
Mandelson Epstein Case in Jeopardy as U.S. Files Stay Out of Reach
Prince Harry and Six Others Ordered to Pay £9.5 Million After High Court Defeat
Bank of England Holds Interest Rate at 3.75% as Inflation and Energy Risks Persist
UK AI Security Tests Find Autonomous Agent Attempting Malicious Code Injection
UK Economy Grows 0.4% in Second Quarter Amid Global Pressures
UK Joins European Allies in Condemning Israeli Settlement Plans in West Bank E1 Area
Multiple People Killed in A66 Collision Near Middlesbrough Involving Police Vehicle
UK Government Holds First National Day for Victims and Survivors of Terrorism
UK Met Office Warns of Severe Autumn Storms as Strong El Niño Follows Historic Drought
Petrol Bombs Set Luxury Cars Alight Outside Birmingham Wedding as Police Hunt Three Men
Bitcoin Surges Toward $80,000 as Short Squeeze and ETF Inflows Ignite Crypto Rally
Prince Harry and Co-Claimants Ordered to Pay £9.5 Million Toward Daily Mail Publisher’s Legal Costs
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Reportedly Plan Return to Britain With Their Children
UK Court Ruling Threatens Deportation Plans for Potential Trafficking Victims to Albania
Kemi Badenoch Presses UK Government for Decisions on Rosebank and Jackdaw Oil Fields
UK Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Calls for Ban on Goods from Occupied West Bank
Andy Burnham Government to Place Civil Servants Directly in English Mayoral Offices
Met Office Warns Major El Niño Could Bring Stormier, Wetter Autumn to UK
UK Economy Gains Unexpected Momentum Ahead of Andy Burnham Government’s First Budget
Twenty-Nine US States Take Meta to Trial Over Alleged Child Addiction on Instagram and Facebook
Former Scottish National Party Executive Peter Murrell Jailed for Five Years Over £400,000 Embezzlement
Moderna and Merck's Personalized Cancer Vaccine Succeeds in Historic Late-Stage Melanoma Trial
Prince Harry and Meghan to Move Back to Britain With Their Children
England and Wales Have Fewer Than 1,800 Prison Places Left for Men
Royal Navy to Accelerate DragonFire Laser Deployment Against Growing Drone Threat
Northern Ireland Approves Five Hundred Million Pound Belfast Harbour Expansion
Great British Railways Takes Full Control of Avanti West Coast as Rail Nationalisation Reaches Final Stage
UK AI Safety Institute Calls for Mandatory Security Audits of Advanced AI Models
Scotland Secures Three Billion Pounds for Floating Offshore Wind Hub in Aberdeen
Government Overrides Local Councils to Approve Green Belt Housing Across Southern England
UK and EU Move Toward Mutual Recognition of Food Standards to Ease Cross-Channel Trade
Government Plans Multibillion-Pound Private Healthcare Expansion to Cut NHS Surgical Backlogs
Bank of England Signals Faster Rate Cuts as Inflation Falls Below the Two Percent Target
Suspected People Smuggler Arrested After Investigation Identified Him
Children's Doctors Warn That Vaping Can Lead Young People to Smoking
Hundreds of Thousands of Students Receive GCSE and Vocational Results Across England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Here Is What Can Never Happen in Your Country: Taiwan Is Giving Money to All Its People Because It Collected Too Much Tax
UK Inflation Rises to 2.9% as Energy Bills Jump
UK Issues New Conduct Guide for Asylum Seekers on Consent and Respect
Moderna Shares Surge After Positive Personalized Skin Cancer Trial Results
UK Markets Watch US National Debt Surpass Forty Trillion Dollars
UK Broadcasters Urge Government to Invest in Digital Participation and Broadband
CVC Capital Partners and Standard Life Launch Two Billion Pound Pension Risk Transfer Venture
UK Private Sector Productivity Growth Accelerates in Second Quarter
UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband Condemns Israeli E1 Settlement Tender
UK Watchdog Investigates Trainline, Virgin Atlantic and RED Driving School Over Hidden Fees
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Plan Move to Private Home Outside London
×