King Charles III coins

[Old Yard Dog]

With the move towards cashless payments, it will be interesting to see how many UK coins are ever minted bearing the head of our new King Charles III.

Low denomination KCIII coins could become particularly rare given the numbers currently in circulation.

Mintage figures can be found at

https://www.royalmint.com/collect/collector-resources/uk-coin-mintage-figures/

but these do not distinguish QEII and KCIII coins from 2023. I believe some 5p and 50p coins were KCIII.

Anyway I thought it well worth investing in an official commemorative set of 2024 coins from the Royal Mint. These differ from those in general circulation as they have a privy mark.

I've never been tempted by coins you see advertised in the Sunday papers which are often the currency of obscure islands rather than the UK.

 

[81A]

I have seen 2 5p coins and probably 10+ £1 coins so far. No other denominations though. I have kept one 5p and one £1 to commerate the transition. I suspect their rarity will depend on the use of cash (declining now, but some countries are encouraging it's use for national security reasons) and His Majesty's health.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Have one of the early King Charles III (2022) Queen Elizabeth II Memorial 50p pieces. One of 9,600,000 apparently. Who knew?

 

[brad465]

I've got three commemorative coins with Charles on: the Elizabeth II tribute £5 coin from 2022, the Flying Scotsman centenary £2 coin from 2023, and the Railway 200 £2 coin from last year. Haven't seen any mainstream coins yet, or I've possessed one without realising.

 

[81A]

I wonder whether any Charles III coppers will enter circulation soon? Have any even been minted? I think there is something of an oversupply of coppers at the moment?

 

[MP33]

No copper coins will be minted. Due to the numbers in circulation, expected to last for many years. There was one year when less than 10 old pennies were minted.

 

[WesternLancer]

I think I’ve only seen 50p and £1 coins so far.
I got a king Charles 50p v soon after first minted, in some change from a post office.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 13 Jun 2026 ==

No copper coins will be minted. Due to the numbers in circulation, expected to last for many years. There was one year when less than 10 old pennies were minted.

Seems a shame to me.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

No copper coins will be minted.

Fairly sure that collectors' sets are available containing King Charles III 1p (Dormouse) and 2p (Red Squirrel) coins. Albeit not in large quantities, though, and not meant for general circulation. Technically, these particular coins are plated steel, not copper.

 

[DelW]

I think I’ve only seen 50p and £1 coins so far.
I got a king Charles 50p v soon after first minted, in some change from a post office.

I had an occasional 50p or £1 a couple of years ago, but they don't seem to have become more common since.

I've had several KCIII 5 pences in my change in the last couple of weeks, though, so maybe a batch of those has just been released. King Charles £5 notes seem to be getting more common now too.

 

[Trackman]

It tells you on the royal mint website about mintage numbers.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

It tells you on the royal mint website about mintage numbers.

Indeed. Although the mintage figure for Red Squirrel 2p coins is ostensibly zero, obviously they do exist, just they weren't ever intended to go into general circulation. Unlikely to ever get them in change.

 

[route101]

Only had a few 50p coins and only a few £10 notes.

 

[Garmoran]

Indeed. Although the mintage figure for Red Squirrel 2p coins is ostensibly zero, obviously they do exist, just they weren't ever intended to go into general circulation. Unlikely to ever get them in change.

Never say never, though. About 10 years ago I discovered that I had a tatty half sovereign among the pennies in my pocket. I had no idea where I acquired it.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

About 10 years ago I discovered that I had a tatty half sovereign among the pennies in my pocket. I had no idea where I acquired it.

That's now got to be worth several hundred quid, these days!

 

[Ianigsy]

I was given my first Charles III 5p last week although on seeing the oak leaf, my first thought was that somebody had tried to slip me a pfennig!

 

[Ashley Hill]

Indeed. Although the mintage figure for Red Squirrel 2p coins is ostensibly zero, obviously they do exist, just they weren't ever intended to go into general circulation. Unlikely to ever get them in change.

Likewise the KCIII £2 coin. It does surprise me just how few £2 coins you see around anyway. I rarely see them at work.

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

Likewise the KCIII £2 coin. It does surprise me just how few £2 coins you see around anyway. I rarely see them at work.

Weren't £2 coins partly intended to make life easier for operators and users of vending machines? With contactless being more common I guess the original driver for £2 coins has subsided considerably so perhaps there is less need to keep them in circulation.

 

[zero]

In Australia, the KC3 $1 is reasonably common now and the $2 slightly less so, but they often come from mint rolls/bags (i.e. businesses are giving out fresh coins they've bought from their bank). I've only seen one KC3 20c and none of the other cent denominations in the wild, though I haven't kept up with mintage amounts to know if I should be expecting to see them.


In the UK, since the release of KC3 coins, I haven't used cash in my personal capacity where I would receive change, but my wife did get a QE2 memorial 50p 3 years ago.

I wonder whether any Charles III coppers will enter circulation soon?

600,000 1p were minted in 2023 and ostensibly entered circulation. If that indeed happened I suspect many would have been quickly removed from circulation for collections and to sell to collectors.

Similar numbers of 10p, 20p and 50p (standard design) have been minted for circulation while larger amounts of 5p and £1 have been released.

 

[The exile]

Weren't £2 coins partly intended to make life easier for operators and users of vending machines? With contactless being more common I guess the original driver for £2 coins has subsided considerably so perhaps there is less need to keep them in circulation.

That and the fact that they are probably now the “go to” for collecting in a jar.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Jun 2026 ==

Similar numbers of 10p, 20p and 50p (standard design) have been minted for circulation while larger amounts of 5p and £1 have been released.

The latter are certainly the only ones I’ve come across and as treasurer of a small society I do deal with quite a lot of small change on a weekly basis.

 

[jon81uk]

I wonder whether any Charles III coppers will enter circulation soon? Have any even been minted? I think there is something of an oversupply of coppers at the moment?

I think there is a moderate chance of 1p and 2p being withdrawn similar to Canada and Australia, probably more likely to get rid than mint significantly more.

 

[The exile]

I think there is a moderate chance of 1p and 2p being withdrawn similar to Canada and Australia, probably more likely to get rid than mint significantly more.

Given the fact that the 5p is probably worth less than the 1/2p was in 1971, even this dinosaur agrees that they wouldn’t really be missed (as long as any rounding happened at final bill level rather than on individual items, where it could add up quite quickly). Obviously electronic transactions could keep them.

 

[81A]

Given the fact that the 5p is probably worth less than the 1/2p was in 1971, even this dinosaur agrees that they wouldn’t really be missed (as long as any rounding happened at final bill level rather than on individual items, where it could add up quite quickly). Obviously electronic transactions could keep them.

There was a decimal half penny minted that lasted until 1984. So if we are comparing it should be to the 1984 value of the half penny not 1971 (when they still had 13 years left in circulation).

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Jun 2026 ==

The Bank of England (link) calculator suggests that 1p in 1984 would be worth 3p now. So a half penny in 1984 would be worth about 1.5p now. If we are following the half penny example, this suggests we should scrap the 1p but keep the 2p.

 

[thenorthern]

I was in the Isle of Man recently and I noticed quite a few King Charles III coins. Obviously these coins are not legal tender in the United Kingdom despite being the same dimensions.

 

[81A]

I was in the Isle of Man recently and I noticed quite a few King Charles III coins. Obviously these coins are not legal tender in the United Kingdom despite being the same dimensions.

I wonder which overseas territory/crown dependency (or the "mainland") has the highest proportion of Charles III coins in circulation relative to the total number of coins in circulation?

 

[Bald Rick]

Haven’t seen any.

Mind you, I haven‘t used coins for about 5 years.