It’s crazy to think that the second British folks get a new monarch, all of the money and governmental symbols have to change. ERII (Elizabeth II Regina) was stamped on everything, and Queen Elizabeth’s image appears on money, stamps, official paperwork, all of that. Now that Charles is in charge, he’s become Charles Rex III, or whatever order that’s supposed to be. Thus, everything will be stamped with this new cypher:
It’s… not great? Like, it’s just an ugly design. I remember when both Meghan and Kate married into this dreadful family, they had to get a coat of arms, and I was surprised by how cartoonish and amateurish both coats of arms looked. Charles’s cypher reminds me of that. Apparently, because Charles doesn’t want to come across like a bull in a china shop, the move to this new cypher will be gradual:
The King’s new royal cypher has been revealed by Buckingham Palace as Charles begins his third full week as head of state. The monogram shows the crown above his first initial “C” intertwined with an “R” for Rex (Latin for King, traditionally used for the monarch dating back to the 12th century), with “III” inside the “R.”
It will soon become commonplace where royal symbols are shown, replacing Queen Elizabeth’s “ERII” insignia. Some of these changes will be gradual, palace officials say, but the postmarks on all mail leaving Buckingham Palace will begin on Tuesday. The cypher will also be seen on state documents and eventually on the familiar red mailboxes around the U.K. as well as used by U.K. government departments on their mail.
The new cypher is the personal property of Charles, 73, who officially ended the period of royal mourning for Queen Elizabeth on Monday along with other members of the royal family and the royal household. He chose the design from several that were created by the palace’s heraldry experts, the College of Arms.
The King already adapted a new signature that came with his place as sovereign, signing his name as “Charles R” on official documents as well as the note left on top of Queen Elizabeth’s coffin during her funeral services.
Again, the logistics fascinate me. I’m sure this sorts of things were already in place as part of Operation London Bridge, and Charles chose his cypher long ago. But was stuff actually prepared? Was the cypher actually physically on stationary and postmark-stamps, just waiting to be sent out?
As for Charles appearing on British currency, the move to produce the new currency will begin this fall and winter, but British folks won’t actually have Charles’s image on their currency until 2024.
PS… Hilariously, people think Charles’s cypher looks like Cristiano Ronaldo’s.
Not Crestiano😩 pic.twitter.com/YL86Wlq5LX
— Omid Scobie (@scobie) September 26, 2022
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Buckingham Palace.
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- King Charles III delivers his address to the nation and the Commonwealth from Buckingham Palace, London, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday. Picture date: Friday September 9, 2022. . .,Image: 721402925, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- King Charles III during the Accession Council at St James’s Palace, London, where King Charles III is formally proclaimed monarch. Charles automatically became King on the death of his mother, but the Accession Council, attended by Privy Councillors, confirms his role. Picture date: Saturday September 10, 2022. . .,Image: 721404798, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- The first letters to be franked with the new cypher of King Charles III are sorted in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in London. Along with the Royal Household mail the cypher will be used by government departments and appear on government buildings, state documents and on some post boxes in the coming months and years. The cypher features the King’s initial C intertwined with the letter R for Rex – Latin for King – with III within the R denoting Charles III, with the crown above the letters.,Image: 726451167, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Yui Mok / Avalon
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- David White, Garter King of Arms, holding one of the first letters to be franked with the new cypher of King Charles III are sorted in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in London. Along with the Royal Household mail the cypher will be used by government departments and appear on government buildings, state documents and on some post boxes in the coming months and years. The cypher features the King’s initial C intertwined with the letter R for Rex – Latin for King – with III within the R denoting Charles III, with the crown above the letters.,Image: 726451180, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Yui Mok / Avalon
It honestly looks like they used free crown clip art from Google images for this.
If only they’d used Canva.
Fiver.com would have come up with something way more stylized.
As a popular measure, he could’ve crowdsourced it.
It does🤣.. (first glance for me I thought crown Royal whiskey got a new logo🥴)
I like it. Cleaner than I expected.
Agree with Billiegurl. It could have been all kinds of ugly.
Haahahhhaaa! I bet Christiano Ronaldo is loving this extra publicity for his merch, not that he needs it.
This is hilarious!! The new king’s cypher is just like a football player’s!! Gotta love it!!
Everything about the Royals is unprofessional. From their insignias and designs to their effectiveness, ethics, scruples, and productivity. They wouldn’t last a day in any legitimate business or government.
It looks cheap and cartoonish. It is ugly, just like Charles in Charge.
It looks better as a postmark than it does in color. Maybe the same will be true of the currency.
Yes & it’s very similar to his mother’s, which looks perfectly fine rendered in metal or as a postmark. The Cristiano Ronaldo thing is funny, though.
We were in England this summer and this was something I kept thinking about. It felt like the queen’s insignia was everywhere! I can’t imagine how much its going to cost to change it all over. And then to do it all again when Charles passes? Can’t the royal family just make one insignia for the monarch and call it a day?
Yeah this is going to be expensive for the british. But hey it’s not like they have any other more pressing things to spend their money on.
I follow a lot of attorneys on Twitter, and it was kinda funny watching what they had to do.
Top lawyers (barristers) in UK, Canada, Australia, NZ had been referred to as Queen’s Counsel, with QC following their name. It’s a form of prestige, so of course these initials were everywhere: websites, placards at offices, business cards, etc. People were used to calling them “QCs”.
But now they are “KCs”, and all of those references have to change. I saw one screen shot a week after her death where have of them still had QC and the other half had moved over to KC.
I’m an old so when I see “KC” I immediately think of “…and the Sunshine Band”. 😁
Oh my goodness I hadn’t thought of that! Wow, we really do need to disentangle ourselves from the monarchy.
I prefer to hear KC and the Sunshine Band over anything Chuck the T’ird says.
Crestiano’s is better. Charles’ cypher looks like it has something coming through a pair of legs. The “C” just makes me think of the new Queen Escort.
It’s amazing the amount of work and money that will go into changing a little symbol.
I’m a terrible person. I saw the numerals inside the R and thought aww look little tampons 😒. But these look like cartoons from a computer game. Childish and basic.
lol!
It’s not ugly, but he is an ugly, ugly person, especially on the inside. He’s gotten the face he deserves, as has his glorified side-piece.
It looks like it belongs on a whiskey bottle.
I was watching the Lucy Worsley Black Death documentary last night and she went to Queen’s Library. Big sign over the door. Immediately wondered if they were going to have to get a new sign now that they are King’s Library.
I remember driving around the English countryside and being fascinated by the metal postboxes that bore the initials of the monarch reigning when they were put up. Mostly EII, of course, but quite a few Georges, and an EVII or two. Apparently there were some Victoria’s, but don’t know if that’s still the case.
Charles is cheap, but also petty, so it will be interesting to see how rapidly the turnover happens. At least they know William and George are next in line, so it will be King for a while.
I think if you subtract the upper part (the gaudy crown), its actually fine. I do agree with Liz that those III look like little tampons…..which is oh so fitting. Gives me the giggles.
If you subtract the gaudy crown, it’s basically the logo for the Colorado Rockies baseball team… plus tampons.
I’m in Canada, and same here as far as the new currency goes. It won’t start getting rolled until for another couple of years at least, and there’s no word yet (that I know of) on whether or not they’re replacing the Queen on the $20 bill.
Some things are easier to roll over than others, and currency is not one of those things. I dunno what the rules are for minting/printing new currency, or how much of it they mint each year vs. how much is taken out of circulation, etc, but I’m sure there are rules for all that, and that’s why having his face on the money is going to take time.
But as far as everything else goes–I’m sure all of the Queen’s portraits on Parliament Hill and the provincial legislatures have been changed. Other stuff is just a matter of flipping pronouns (from Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition to His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition for example). Then there was that hiccup at one citizenship ceremony in Canada, where the Queen died right in the middle of it or something, and there was a whole hold up where they had to figure out which pronouns to use in the oath of citizenship. Those people must have been the first ones on the planet to sing God Save the King after 70 something years, lol (that’s a part of the citizenship ceremony, I think, although I can’t remember if it came at the beginning or the end of it).
All of this brings to mind this old Scottish lady I knew once. She had immigrated to Canada like, 30 odd years ago, but she wasn’t a citizen. One of my colleagues asked her why she hadn’t gotten her citizenship yet, and she said it’s bc she doesn’t want to swear an oath to the Queen, bc she’s Scottish.
Yeah sure Chuck, the UK economy literally just tanked so bad, in the last week and especially today, but sure let’s spend a Gazillion £ on your ego. Now obviously, this is something that was a “constitutional” given *rolls eyes* but do WE UK taxpayers really have to fund your mum’s funeral as well as your personal branding? This numpty needs to read the g-darn room because when I think of the things that now need to be physically changed: military and police uniforms, every portrait in every Gov office in the Commonwealth, wall furnishings (insignia) in all UK Gov buildings, post boxes, the national anthem, the retail packaging of any product that has a royal warrant, legit Gov departments and all their logos too (eg passports and taxes)… stamps are the least expensive of all of these. The most expensive? Money! Can you imagine just how much it will cost? Literally next week several banknotes in circulation (the paper, not the fancy plastic notes) become unusable and so much has been spent in the last 6 years making the new notes. Coins? Good grief, that will cost even more to change and coinage is much less likely to be in banking institutions, so people will most likely forget about having them.
I am so freakin’ mad today. Our new PM was chosen by 82k people, within our 68m strong population. Within the last 3 weeks, our parliament has only been in session for less than 6 days of that. I hope they now enjoy spending a tax payer funded sabbatical for their political rally periods ( party conference season). Our “establishment” including this new monarch are taking us for fools. I would ask just how much everything I’ve mentioned in this rant, will cost but I truly believe that it will only be a journalist out with the UK that will actually dare tell us. I wonder if the collective apoplexy within the UK will subside before we then have to pay for a coronation, and soon after an investiture.
The royals can go take a flip to themselves. Perhaps the only saving grace is that it will be funny to see that CRIII money is worth a 100th of ERII’s. Can’t wait to spend a £100 on bread and milk…
Maybe that’s part of the masterplan, Chuck and the tories are in cahoots to tank the economy so badly that the £ gets devalued and he can end up on the £10,000 note and beat his mother at something at last.
I share your anger and frustration.
Will the old bank notes really be unusable? I ask because, for example, while the US no longer makes $2.00 bills, they’re still legal tender, should anyone still want to spend it (most people collected them long ago & you never see them as change any more).
It reminds me of the Real Madrid Logo. How odd.
Twitter has modified it so the CR is closely followed by ‘AP’
I like it. Cleaner than I expected.
These people do not know how to stage photographs. Kate sits at a desk with a blank paper in front of her and a pen in her non-dominant hand, smiling on the phone. Charles sits stiffly at a desk with no work at all in front of him, and has the queen’s picture pointing AWAY from him. Seriously, their public relations team are a bunch of crap amateurs. Or, to follow up on what Lizzie said above, “CRap” amateurs.
My husband’s family is the same…we all came from Scotland to Canada and his family never became citizens here because of the oath to the queen.
I don’t think it looks THAT bad until you compare it to the Queen’s cypher. It makes you wonder why he wouldn’t just stick with something closer to hers out of tradition, etc. This one doesn’t look particularly regal?