I shall never understand collectors:
Good news. Glad so much was raised for charity.
It wasn’t damaged. The protestors just put a couple of stickers on the plexiglass sheet protecting the painting. According to the gallery, the stickers were removed almost immediately.
And new coin designs are starting to appear
Just a tiny shame the monarch isn’t a native species here (it has been recorded here as a rare migrant, presumed to be blown off course across the Atlantic).
But then I can’t think of any regal-sounding butterflies or insects that are native to these lands that would be a better choice - we’ve got the Purple Emperor, but that feeds on dung.
The article says that the numbers have been enlarged to help children with their counting. Um, what? How does that help? It might help with their numeracy, though little eyes can see little numbers pretty well if they look. You can certainly count coins regardless of what’s on them.
I hate it when they give reasons that are obviously wrong.
The UK is still producing 1p coins (along with 2p and 5p coins)? Are they as worthless as the American penny?
Well not quite as worthless, they are worth about 10% more.
But practically, just as pointless. I don’t use cash much, but when I do I empty the brown ones into a jar. Every 2-3 months I use it at the supermarket selfcheckout to take 30p or so off my bill. It’s pointless busywork, but better than just storing them, (so they make more!). 1p and 2p, (and 5p) coins should be phased out IMO
Looking at it, my primary concern is that he seems to be melting into a bloody pool.
Fairly ominous painting for your future, before even considering that he’s fighting cancer.
When my brother visits from Costa Rica, he always leaves his American coinage with us when he goes home. I just take it to our market that has an automatic coin counting machine. It spits out a receipt that I take when I checkout to get a small “discount.” And, yeah, it’s usually a lot of pennies.
There’s the Duke of Burgundy.
But you might need a passport to Pimlico to see it.
" Australians decided in a referendum in 1999 to retain Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. That result is widely regarded as a consequence of disagreement about how a president should be chosen rather than majority support for a monarch."
Well I also think she was more popular that King Charles III. Will Australia dump him shortly?
Would it matter at all if Australia became a republic? Does that give the monarchy less power or authority or something?
It would matter to the extent that today there are (only) 15 Commonwealth realms that recognize the British monarch as their Head of State. If another one bites the dust, it would be a disturbing harbinger for the future of the monarchy. It’s pretty clear that its days are numbered anyway, but I suspect that Britain itself will hold on to its traditional monarchy for deeply entrenched historical reasons long after the rest of the Commonwealth has given up on it.
The easy question is “Should we go to a republic?”
The hard question is “What do we replace the King with? What kind of republic do we want?”
That’s what scuppered the republic option before. Until that’s resolved, Australia stays a a republic. (And Canada also.)
I’m having trouble parsing this sentence.
Quite right; should be “stays as a monarchy”. My apologies.
Barbados left the Commonwealth a few years back, which was semi-big news. Jamaica has been threatening to hold a referendum for seemingly 20 years on whether to leave, but they never actually do. If a country like Australia DID leave, however, it would probably shake the Commonwealth to its core.
Why? Becoming a republic doesn’t mean leaving the Commonwealth.
There was a lot of talk that many of the nations were hanging around out of respect for Liz and would leave shortly after she passed but that hasn’t seemed to happen.