[imagesource: Dan Marsh / Wikimedia]
King Charles III must love hearing his title out loud.
The guy certainly waited long enough for something he didn’t have to work at all for, and has been given solely due to birthright.
Anyway, the royal formerly known as Prince now graces the 50 pence coin and manufacturing began yesterday.
According to the BBC, the 50p coin has started to be struck at The Royal Mint in Llantrisant, Wales. From December, it will hit the open market and be stuffed away in wallets, tills, and purses:
Sculptor Martin Jennings, who created the portrait of the King, said that witnessing the coin being produced was a “quite remarkable experience”.
He said it took months of painstaking work to get the image right.
We’ve got our hands on one of the FIRST King Charles III coins!
This UK 50p will be entering circulation by the end of this year. Who’s going to be looking for this coin in their change?
You can get this coin in Brilliant Uncirculated quality here: https://t.co/FWuDZjLdV1 pic.twitter.com/jUVYtD8FXw
— Change Checker (@ChangeChecker) October 27, 2022
He used pictures of King Charles on his 70th birthday to create a likeness of the monarch, in what is the smallest work he has ever had to produce.
On the reverse side of the coin, it’s old school all the way with a copy of the design used on the 1953 Crown struck to commemorate the Queen’s coronation.
The more eagle-eyed among you (and those with the ability to read a headline) may notice that Charles is facing the opposite direction to that which Queen Elizabeth II faced.
This via ITV:
The Queen was always pictured faced right on her coins in a tradition which has been place for more than 300 years, according to the Royal Mint.
Each King or Queen faces in the opposite direction to the one who came before them – which is why King Charles is pictured facing left.
The Queen’s father George VI had faced left on his coins, so tradition demanded her portrait face right.
Riveting, right?
The Royal Mint is over the moon to be up and running with the process, having struck its first coin in the late ninth Century.
Queen Elizabeth II opened the current location in 1968.
📢 The first coins bearing His Majesty King Charles III’s portrait are striking as we speak, and you can expect to see 50ps featuring the Queen Elizabeth II Memorial design on the reverse side of the coins in your change before Christmas. @RoyalFamily pic.twitter.com/QoOK5uiW4t
— The Royal Mint (@RoyalMintUK) October 28, 2022
Perhaps it’s fitting that as debates around why the Royal Family continue to exist intensify, British society is moving away from paying with cash, likely rendering the 50p coin obsolete in due course.
At least King Charles III will always have that $25 billion real estate portfolio to fall back on.
