Royal Mint bullion coinage in the event of monarch change

[FoolzGold]

Out of interest, what happens to Royal Mint bullion coinage in the event of the death of a monarch?

The Queen's beasts series is scheduled to carry on to September 2020 when the Queen will be 94. Now I wish her no ill will, and she shows no sign of keeling over any time soon, but just for the sake of argument lets say she has the Duke of Edinburgh drive her to the local Aldi and the worst happens... 🚙🔃💥

For bullion coins still being minted in the current year - e.g. the 2019 QB Falcon - presumably they would be obliged to switch the obverse design for a new one with King Charles and continue minting with those for the remainder of the year, meaning there would be two versions of the QB Falcon with different obverses.

Presumably this might also apply to a second coin still being produced in the same year - e.g. today the 2018 Bull is still theoretically being minted up until March of this year. If they sold the existing stock of QEII Bull coins would they be obliged to mint further coins with King Charles's head until the end of the 1 year production deadline?

I'm the first to admit I know nothing about this, so I'd be interested to hear from the experts.

[Shinus73]

As QEII has been on the throne for almost 300 years, there aren’t going to be many people on here with personal experience of how this will go. 😄

[PansPurse]

I suspect it'll be a staggered introduction because they won;t be ready to just switch over the dies, and I suspect ciruclating coinage will come as a higher priority than others. So I'd be astonished if, for example, they changed the minting of existing QBs, to have, say, some Falcons with Elizabeth II and some with George VII (Charles is on record sayign he plans to reign under the name George)

[Pete]

1 hour ago, FoolzGold said:

The Queen's beasts series is scheduled to carry on to September 2020 when the Queen will be 94. Now I wish her no ill will, and she shows no sign of keeling over any time soon, but just for the sake of argument lets say she has the Duke of Edinburgh drive her to the local Aldi and the worst happens... 🚙🔃💥

 

... especially on a sunny day, wearing no seat belt, nor giving way when joining an A road ..

[FoolzGold]

1 hour ago, Shinus73 said:

As QEII has been on the throne for almost 300 years, there aren’t going to be many people on here with personal experience of how this will go. 😄

Indeed, no changes for the last 67 years versus 5 changes of monarch in the 51 years from 1901 to 1952 inclusive. Back then they were a dime a dozen. 👑👑👑👑👑

[westminstrel]

Anyway coronation doesn’t occur until at least a year, if my understanding is correct, right?  So I wonder if it will be a problem to continue production with the previous monarch’s effigy for a while?

[PansPurse]

I remeber this article from a while ago going into the terrifyingly minute plans for when the Queen dies. Although I don;t think there's any reference at all in it to what happens to coinage:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/16/what-happens-when-queen-elizabeth-dies-london-bridge

[sovereignsteve]

It will depend on when she dies, they'll continue with the current coinage if they need to strike any more. There is precedent of continuing with the dead  monarch's effigy for a while.

The new monarch will have to sit for an effigy engraving, which will then need approving, followed by new master dies being produced which will then need approving. Then due process of advertising the new coin format in the usual publications. This can take many months and I do remember reading somewhere that Charles has refused to sit for any portraits while his mother is still monarch.

[Finbinfin]

As with circulating coinage, there needs to be a coinage proclamation issued before being released (otherwise they cannot be legal tender) and you would assume this is all planned in advance so in theory she could die and there still be coins issued with her portrait for a while, until at least the new monarch issued their own coinage proclamations (whether coronated or not they would still be sovereign).