King Charles III’s stamp unveiled by Royal Mail

Royal Mail Release Definitive King Charles III Stamps

by Lorna White |
Updated on

The Royal Mail has unveiled King Charles III's official postage stamp, following his ascension to the throne last September.

Previously, all stamps issued by the Royal Mail featured the silhouette side profile of Queen Elizabeth II's head. The new stamp, which was personally approved by the King, features the monarch's head on a plain coloured background. However, unlike the Queen and George VI, the King is pictured with no crown or any other royal embellishment.

According to the BBC, the King wanted a more pared back design. "The feedback we got back was that he wanted it to be simple," said Royal Mail director of external affairs, David Gold."It's a very human image, with no embellishment."

The Royal Mail will now stop producing Queen Elizabeth II stamps and the new King Charles III stamps will go on general sale from 4 April 2023.

As for our postboxes, you may have noticed that the Royal Mail puts royal cyphers on many of our post boxes with more than 60 per cent 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.

The new cypher for King Charles III will read CIIIR with C for Charles, R for Rex which means King in Latin and III to mark that he is Charles III.

When will King Charles start to feature on our money?

There are currently 29 billion coins in circulation in the UK which have the Queen's head on. The designs were updated regularly during her reign, most recently in 2015 when she was 88-years-old.

New notes featuring Charles' portrait have already entered circulation, but it may take some time before you end up with one in your wallet. It is predicted that the current coins with the Queen's head on will remain in circulation for many years and that it will be a very gradual process.

The 50p coins have been in use since December, distributed by banks, building societies and post offices. It is believed that 9.6 million 50p coins of the latest design will be made.

Sculptor Martin Jennings created the portrait of the King and said that witnessing the coin being produced was a "quite remarkable experience".

The main difference will be that Charles’ head will be facing the other way on the new coins. Tradition dictates that the direction in which the monarch faces on coins must alternate for each new monarch.

Another unique feature is the bird outline located near Charles' ear. Although it's pretty difficult to spot at first, once you see it you really can't unsee it. Did you spot it?

king charles coin with bird

As well as coins, the Queen appears on 4.5 billion individual Bank of England notes – as with the coins, these will be phased out of circulation.

During this transition period, all notes and coins will remain legal tender and we will get plenty of notice before any change will happen.

Royal warrants

When you're doing your weekly shop, you'll have no doubt noticed the Royal seal of approval, granted to some brands by senior Royals. This approval is shown with the Royal coat of Arms with the message "By appointment to Her Majesty the Queen". In simple terms, it means that this company is responsible for supplying the Royal households on a regular basis.

heinz royal warrant

Currently, around 800 companies hold a Royal warrant. The monarch, their consort and heir all have the ability to grant Royal warrants, and when a grantor dies, any Royal Warrants they issued become void and the company has two years to stop using the Royal Arms.

This means that any warrants granted by Charles when he was Prince of Wales will continue now that he is King. Prince William, the new Prince of Wales and the heir to the throne will now have the ability to grant Royal warrants, as will Camilla, Queen Consort. Any that Queen Elizabeth II granted will now be void.

How will passports change?

If you look at your passport, you'll notice that all British Passports are issued in the name of 'Her Majesty'. While these will still be valid for travel, any new passports printed since the King's succession will be printed with 'His Majesty'.

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