# How widespread is Queen Elizabeth's image on the world's money?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 8, 2022, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233 "2022-09-08T18:07:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Teuton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teuton)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2022, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233/1 "2022-09-08T18:07:36Z")
Just a question that occurs after her death this afternoon. She was Head of State for a lot of countries, but how many countries have her image on their currency (and/or postage stamps?) Australia? Canada? And is it on all their coins and notes (like it is in the UK) or just certain denominations?
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2022, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233/2 "2022-09-08T18:19:49Z")
QEII is on all Canadian coins, and on the $20 bill.
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### Author:  [@steepone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steepone)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2022, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233/3 "2022-09-08T19:10:40Z")
In Australia QEII is on all coins and on the $5.00 note
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### Author:  [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2022, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233/4 "2022-09-08T19:25:30Z")
On all Belizean notes and most of the coins.
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### Author:  [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2022, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233/5 "2022-09-08T19:53:58Z")
- Australia
- Bahamas
- Belize
- Bermuda
- British Caribbean Territories
- British Honduras
- Canada
- Cayman Islands
- Ceylon
- Cyprus
- East African Currency Board
- East Caribbean States
- Falkland Islands
- Fiji
- Gibraltar
- Great Britain (Bank of England)
- Guernsey
- Hong Kong
- Isle of Man
- Jamaica
- Jersey
- Malaya and North Borneo
- Malta
- Mauritius
- New Zealand
- Rhodesia and Nyasaland
- Rhodesia
- Saint Helena
- Scotland (Royal Bank of Scotland)
- Seychelles
- Solomon Islands
- Southern Rhodesia
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Zambia (essay only)
From here:
[http://www.pjsymes.com.au/qe2/](http://www.pjsymes.com.au/qe2/)
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### Author:  [@Teuton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teuton)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2022, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233/6 "2022-09-08T20:04:40Z")
I have found similar lists, but they are lists of countries that have used the Queen’s image at some point, not ones that currently do.
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### Author:  [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2022, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233/7 "2022-09-09T01:07:47Z")
Obverses of the circulating Australian coins from the draw beside my desk:
[ ](https://i.ibb.co/44q8Psp/Coins-Portrait.jpg)
From L-R $2, $1, 50c, 20c, 10c, 5c
QEII also appears on the 2c and 1c coins which are legal tender but not circulating.
If you want to see them in mint condition, then the [Royal Australian Mint](https://www.ramint.gov.au/circulating-coins) is the place:
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### Author:  [@Thylacine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacine)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2022, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233/8 "2022-09-09T05:57:43Z")
I am sure every country on the list has a version of this tweet going around [https://twitter.com/chaser/status/1568053967028109312?s=21&t=vRWE6\_xFCRndcRrs20l3TA](https://twitter.com/chaser/status/1568053967028109312?s=21&t=vRWE6_xFCRndcRrs20l3TA)
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2022, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233/9 "2022-09-09T06:15:42Z")
For coins, I believe the Queen’s effigy is on all of the recent circulation coins of the UK and its various territories and dependencies, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Eastern Caribbean (five realms, one republic, and two British territories), Belize, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu (which uses a mix of its own coins and Australia’s). She was also on the coins of Fiji until very recently, and I assume some of those still circulate. (Unusually, Belize still uses the crowned colonial effigy from 1953 on everything except the dollar coin, which has one from the 1980s instead.)
She was not on the coins in her realms of Jamaica and Papua New Guinea, at least any time recently, or in Barbados which became a republic last year.
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### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2022, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233/10 "2022-09-09T13:06:43Z")
Not to hijack exactly, but what’s the procedure for replacement now that Charles is king? Do they just start minting new money with his face on it at some point, or is there some massive recall/replacement effort to get rid of the QEII money in circulation?
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2022, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233/11 "2022-09-09T13:47:58Z")
Really? Some of those countries haven’t existed for decades.
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2022, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233/12 "2022-09-09T13:48:49Z")
They start using him on anything new and the old stuff stays in circulation.
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### Author:  [@Teuton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teuton)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2022, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233/13 "2022-09-09T13:56:56Z")
> [@bump](#):
>
> Not to hijack exactly, but what’s the procedure for replacement now that Charles is king?
In the UK, at least, new money printed or minted will have Charles on, but money currently in circulation stays legal tender as normal.
I remember in the 1980s still getting coins with George VI on
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### Author:  [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2022, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233/14 "2022-09-09T14:15:32Z")
I read that the tradition for Great Britain’s postage stamps was that each monarch would be in profile, facing the opposite way from the previous monarch. And this caused a “tempest in a teapot” for King Edward VIII because he felt that the profile which would be used was his weaker profile. Overtaken by events. Which then caused another flap, since there were no Edward stamps, which profile should be used for George VI?
Was this ever a rule for coins? Is it still?
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### Author:  [@Thylacine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacine)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2022, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233/15 "2022-09-09T19:13:40Z")
Charles will face the left here, Elizabeth has always faced the right. Tradition.
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### Author:  [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2022, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233/16 "2022-09-09T19:22:45Z")
The Queen’s image is not on any Northern Ireland banknotes as far as I know.
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### Author:  [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2022, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233/17 "2022-09-10T01:49:10Z")
Elizabeth first appeared on a stamp in 1932. Newfoundland issued a 6 cent stamp featuring the 6 year old Princess.
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2022, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233/18 "2022-09-10T05:49:58Z")
> [@bump](#):
>
> Not to hijack exactly, but what’s the procedure for replacement now that Charles is king? Do they just start minting new money with his face on it at some point, or is there some massive recall/replacement effort to get rid of the QEII money in circulation?
The usual practice for past transitions was to continue minting coins with the dead monarch’s head, and then work to get a new design in place by the time of the coronation. The old coins would remain in circulation. Elizabeth II was queen for so long that most places had revamped their money such that there were no coins minted before 1953 in circulation. And banknotes don’t last very long in circulation no matter what. Canada might be the only place where there’s any realistic possibility of getting a George VI coin in change, and I’d expect that that declined a lot a decade ago when pennies stopped circulating (many of the George VI nickels were 12-sided and they stick out as unusual, and the dimes and quarters were silver and were mostly picked out of circulation for their metal value).
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2022, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233/19 "2022-09-11T04:15:07Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#):
>
> what. Canada might be the only place where there’s any realistic possibility of getting a George VI coin in change
Well…
> [@Got a George VI dime in my change!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-a-george-vi-dime-in-my-change/757168):
>
> How has it avoided getting melted down for the silver?!? Minted in 1941. George and the Bluenose are both looking a bit worn. “GEORGIVS VI D.G. REX ET IND. IMP.” So, a 75 year old coin still circulating.
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### Author:  [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2022, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-widespread-is-queen-elizabeths-image-on-the-worlds-money/971233/20 "2022-09-11T06:05:58Z")
Think you might find a George VII coin?
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