{"id":403318,"date":"2025-09-06T18:45:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T18:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/403318\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T18:45:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T18:45:14","slug":"king-charless-reign-reaches-bittersweet-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/403318\/","title":{"rendered":"King Charles’s reign reaches bittersweet milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since he ascended the throne in 2022, King Charles has reached plenty of milestones in his reign, from his first Christmas Day address to his first State Visit as monarch, and many more. Some big moments are a little more poignant, though, and this is the case with a brand new one.<\/p>\n

On 20th August, The Royal Mint announced “a pivotal moment in British coinage history” and confirmed that the last batch of \u00a31 coins featuring the face of the late Queen Elizabeth II are entering circulation.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Alongside these, 7.5M new coins featuring the face of King Charles III will be entered into circulation too. The King Charles \u00a31 coins feature an intricate bee design on the reverse, inspired by the flora and fauna of the British Isles and a nod to His Majesty\u2019s lifelong love of nature.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“This being the final release of \u00a31 coins featuring Queen Elizabeth truly marks the end of an era and could be seen as a poignant moment in her son’s reign,” says woman&home’s Royal Editor, Emma Shacklock. “For so many British people coins are synonymous with her iconic portrait, which subtly changed on coinage throughout her 70 years on the throne.”<\/p>\n

Despite officially being the King since 2022, and being crowned in 2023, up until recently, King Charles had only featured on two coins – the \u00a31 and the 50 pence. Out of the reported 24.7 billion coins in circulation across the UK, the King\u2019s coins currently only represent around 0.004 per cent of those.<\/p>\n

Getting new coins in circulation clearly takes some time and the new coin is one of eight designs that will eventually appear, with other nods to flora and fauna set to include the red squirrel, puffin and dormouse.<\/p>\n

\n

\"King\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Finnbarr Webster\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The Royal Mint also release special collector’s coins to mark important milestones. Recently, this has included the first-ever coin dedicated to Princess Anne. This commemorative coin was released to both celebrate her 75th birthday and honor her dedication to the crown.<\/p>\n

Sign up to our free daily email for the latest royal and entertainment news, interesting opinion, expert advice on styling and beauty trends, and no-nonsense guides to the health and wellness questions you want answered.<\/p>\n

Rebecca Morgan, the Director of Commemorative Coins at the Royal Mint, said in a statement, \u201cThis release represents a pivotal moment in British coinage history. As we release more of the King Charles III \u00a31 coins into circulation alongside the final coins of Queen Elizabeth II, we\u2019re witnessing the physical representation of our monarchy\u2019s transition.\u201d<\/p>\n

As per the BBC<\/a>, coins in the UK usually last around 20 years, meaning there\u2019ll still be quite some time before there is no longer any overlap between Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles coins being in circulation.<\/p>\n

One of the first coins produced by the Royal Mint was a silver penny of King Alfred the Great. This coin was struck during the resettlement of London following Viking occupation, sometime around 880 AD, as per the Royal Mint\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s considered the symbolic start of the Royal Mint producing coins featuring the monarch, though they state that the London Mint may have been producing other coins beforehand.<\/p>\n

TOPICS<\/p>\n

King Charles III<\/a>
\nQueen Elizabeth II<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since he ascended the throne in 2022, King Charles has reached plenty of milestones in his reign, from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,7730,7731,1760,7710,519],"class_list":{"0":"post-403318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-charles","10":"tag-charles-iii","11":"tag-king-charles","12":"tag-royal-families","13":"tag-royal-family"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115158838335479727","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}