Why King Charles III is looking to the left in first coins featuring him
The production of the first coins featuring Britain’s new monarch King Charles III has begun, The Royal Mint, the official maker of UK coins, revealed. The 50p coin will enter circulation in December and replace the ones that currently feature the late Queen Elizabeth II. “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 Chrmas,” the Royal Mint wrote, sharing a video of the coins being produced.
While Queen Elizabeth II faced the right side on the coins, the King will face the opposite direction – the left. This is because of a royal tradition dating back to the 1660s, designer Martin Jennings told People.
📢 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 Chrmas. @RoyalFamily pic.twitter.com/QoOK5uiW4t
— The Royal Mint (@RoyalMintUK) October 28, 2022
He said, “He is in this instance looking to the left, his mother looked to the right. Every monarch will be looking in opposite directions to their predecessor.”
Jennings also revealed that getting the image right for the coins took months of work. Eventually, he used pictures of King Charles on his 70th birthday to create a likeness of the monarch. “It has to be an exact portrait but also that says something about the lasting values of the institution he represents. In subtle and tiny ways, you can put these things across,” he was quoted as saying BBC.
Just like previous monarchs, King Charles, too, doesn’t wear any crown in his picture on the coins.
The other side of the coin features a design that appeared on Queen’s 1953 Coronation Crown. It includes the four quarters of the Royal Arms depicted within a shield. In between each shield is an emblem of the home nations: a rose, a thle, a shamrock and a leek.
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