Queen Elizabeth II Has Passed Away, Sept. 8, 2022 (Age 96)

It's very quiet here today. Everyone seems to be speaking little and with hushed voices.
The vast majority of people alive in the UK today have never known another monarch, and most people seem a little shook up.

I apologize if it is too soon to discuss things, as I certainly mean no disrespect.
Does The Royal Mint continue minting coins with QEII on them or do they stop? What is the process for transitioning to the new monarch on their coinage?

As has been discussed in the threads on the Canadian, Australian and Main subforums...

No, the mint does not suddenly stop making coins with the old monarch's portrait when the monarch dies.

It takes time to approve a new royal coinage portrait, and coins can't be issued without an offically approved portrait. Approving the royal portrait for coinage is one of the few things the British monarch still retains a direct, personal veto power over. And it's not something they can do "in advance", because it would have been rude for the Mint to design a coin for the queens successor while the queen was still alive. So now that she has passed away (and probably after a month or two - it's not that much of a high priority for new monarchs these days), they'll invite artists from Britain and abroad to come and take portraits of the new king. These portraits then get turned into a coin design, before being submitted back to the monarch for approval. If the monarch doesn't like it, they have to start the whole process over again. If the monarch approves, then the coin design goes to Parliament for ratification and enshrining in legislation.

Meanwhile, the country still needs coins for commerce, and the Mint will want to be selling NCLT. So for our current situation, coins will continue to be struck with the "2022" date and the late queen's portrait, until the new designs are ready. After all, a 2022 QEII coin isn't "wrong", as she was queen for at least part of 2022. A 2023 coin with her portrait would be "wrong", so those won't be made (apart from the NCLT coins that might already have been made with the "2023" date). If they still haven't resolved the portrait issue before January 1 2023, then they'll just keep issuing 2022 QEII coins. Which will, in turn, mean that "2022 coins" will be minted for more than 12 months, making them more abundant than would otherwise have been the case. So don't bother hoarding 2022 coins with the expectation they'll become valuable some day; if 1936 and 1952 are anything to judge by, they won't.

All this usually means that coins featuring portraits of the new king aren't likely to be actually in circulation until about the same time as his coronation, which will probably happen in about a year's time. There's no law or convention saying they have to wait until the coronation to start issuing them, that's just how the timeframe usually has gone, for the last hundred years or so at least.

Given how commercial the mint is now, I would not be surprised if 2022 dated Carolus III sets are available by Christmas.....

A beautiful example, canadian_coins

Rest in peace.

I would say His Majesty will be crowned next year, likely summer or early autumn. I would expect that 2023 dated coins would have his effigy, but Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth passed away quite late in the year and its possible we could be waiting until 2024.

After all, an approved effigy of the new King has to be accepted by him and that could stretch it out past 2023. Then again, the king is fairly old and they may want to rush coins out.

I see one of four scenarios happening.

1. Coins are issued fairly early in 2023 throughout Britain and the Commonwealth, these have an acceptable or rushed effigy of the King.

2. As above, but Commonwealth issues with the King are delayed until 2024 (That would be awkward though and never done)

3. Coins of the King are issued dated 2023, but do not emerge until very late in 2023 or even 2024

4. Coins of 2023 show Queen Elizabeth II or are not issued and Charles III coinage does not emerge until 2024.

The main issue is that both King George V and VI died very early in their years and that gave the mint plenty of time to design the portraits and new coins for the next years (1937 and 1953). Edward VII died in June and they managed to have the new coins ready. Plus Victoria also died in January and that meant, Edward had been king for 11 months by 1902.

Also they managed to get GVI coins out by mid 1937 when in fact he was only King on Dec 11 1936. Also in the world of stamps, a 2½d stamp of QE2 was issued in November 1952 to address a shortage of that value which was 1st class postage then.

Today (Sep 26) is also our Memorial Holiday to honour Her Majesty.