Canadians react to royalty change on currency
Posted November 15, 2023 7:39 pm.
The face of royalty has been a staple of Canadian currency for some time. But Tuesday, the Royal Canadian Mint began the long process of replacing the late Queen Elizabeth’s image with that of King Charles — a change Canadians haven’t seen in 70 years.
READ MORE: Royal Canadian Mint releases image of King Charles for all coins
Not all Canadians are a fan of the change or Canada’s monarch.
“I think the way of the world has changed so much. The old days of the Royal family and everyone was following it. It was way more of a thing people did, collected, or accumulated. I think the younger people and society have changed,” said Jack Jensen, Owner of West Edmonton Coin & Stamp.
Jensen doesn’t expect much of a boom in business as the first coin enters circulation next month.
According to Jensen coin collectors are becoming less common and because there hasn’t been a change in seven decades, finding an old coin showing the Queen will be easy for collectors for many years.
“Gotta remember, she was around for a long time and there are a lot of coins out there. It might be different because King Charles will only be in power for 20 years or less,” said Jensen.
The Mint expects currency showing both the king and the late Queen Elizabeth, to co-exist for a long time as all currency is transitioned.
“I think they’ll be in circulation forever, I mean as things move on they’ll start pulling them you know as they wear and so on. But generally, they’ll be around for while because they were out there for a while.”
As for the popularity of having the king’s face on the coin, Jensen says it will be a big thing because many Canadians don’t like the change, in their change.
