Commonwealth Coin Questions

Often the changes happen within a couple years of each other but as far as I know there isn't any official word that goes out telling countries they must change. Currently there are a few different obverses of QEII that are used in different countries. It is good that they tend to change overtime. It would be strange to still be striking coins with an obverse showing the queen as a 30 something year old when we all know she clearly isn't.

At the moment there are several different obverses used between countries. Often obverses are shared between several countries. The Queen must approve each one though.

Prior to Queen Elizabeth II, coinage portraits were chosen and approved in Britain and universally applied throughout the Empire. The only variations were some countries used uncrowned portraits, some used crowned portraits. Australia switched from crowned to uncrowned for George VI.

The Gillick and Machin portraits of Elizabeth II were also universally applied throughout the Commonwealth. But since then, different portraits have been used in different countries. I think New Zealand might have been the first to "go it alone", on their NCLT dollar coin in the early 1980s, though NZ circulation coinage remains in lockstep with the official British portraiture.

Canada was the first to use "native" portraiture on their coins, with a design by local artist Dora dePederey-Hunt selected and used in 1990, with another local, Susanna Blunt, chosen to succeed that design in 2003. Australia dabbled with the concept in the form of the Royal Visit 50 cents 2000. These "native" portraits also have to be approved by the monarch, but she's not likely to say no to such requests these days.

I suspect that for the next monarch, each of the major Commonwealth members will each commission their own distinctive portraiture for their coinage.