The Royal Canadian Mint is releasing a commemorative $2 circulation coin to honour Queen Elizabeth II. The coin will have a black outer ring, instead of a silver-coloured ring.
The Mint has gotten quite good at making interesting coins.
Queen Elizabeth on the obverse, a polar bear on the reverse.
It’s the coin with the Queen with the Bear Behind.
It’s a shame I really don’t use cash anymore. I’ve even given up on carrying a $20 in my wallet.
That’s about US$1.50.
I expect to see ads here in the U.S. any day now offering to sell me one for $20 Merikan.
I mean no disrespect to Elizabeth. I liked and admired her.
Interesting.
A (theoretically) negotiable-currency coin minted by a Commonwealth state, the obverse of which is not the reining sovereign at the time of issue.
Irregular, it seems to me, albeit for a good cause.
There is nothing in Canadian law requiring the Sovereign to appear on bills or coinage.
I said “irregular”, not “illegal”.
In fact, IIRC the Canadian $20 is the only bill that features the sovereign, still QE II in the current series. I use cash so rarely that I barely remember what it looks like. Were it not for the kid who mows my lawn, cash would mostly be a distant memory. So I’m unlikely to ever see this coin, unfortunately.
As @wolfpup pointed out, most of our currency did not feature HRH before she became an ex-monarch.
Also, isn’t it going to take time before they’re able to design and produce new coins and banknotes featuring the king? They have to decide on a portrait, convert it to a die, and so forth.
I like the idea of it being released for circulation instead of only sold for profit from the mint. It’s quite distinctive and will probably disappear from circulation almost immediately. If it matters, there’s currently one on eBay for $125 in Canadian money; that price will certainly come down.
Historical note. The U.S. John F. Kennedy half-dollar was authorized by Congress a month after his death, minting began a month after that, and the coin was released into general circulation in March 1964, just four months after Kennedy’s assassination.
The article said that they were going to release five million of them into circulation. I plan to use them as normal.
Not irregular. Elizabeth II’s portrait will hang in Canadian courthouses and government office buildings, albeit draped with black, until King Charles is crowned officially. After that, his portrait will replace hers in such places, and Canadian coinage and the $20 bill will bear his likeness.
But not until then. Until then, Canadian currency will bear the likeness of Elizabeth II. And Elizabeth II currency remains valid currency, and it will remain valid after Charles III is officially crowned. It seems to me that the Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) is doing the same as all those courthouses and government offices: simply draping her portrait in black. Note that the RCM loves to issue “special issues in your pocket change,” so I’m sure that these coins will be circulated, though many will no doubt be collected from pocket change.
Nitpick: It’s reigning, not reining.
What if they are fitted with bit and bridle?
FWIW, the UK Royal Mint had started issuing its first Charles III coins. When or whether others will emerge presumably depends on when or whether they judge they need more coins in circulation.
What Charles and Camilla do in their bedroom is their business.
For me, using them as normal means I’ll probably never get one. Possibly never even see one.
Not irregular. TIL. Apparently I don’t deal with Canadian currency enough.
And this is a smidge embarrassing, since I do know this but I let autocomplete have its way without proofreading.