I checked my wallet today and found these two notes in it. While I never normally pay that much attention to the people on the front of the notes themselves, as the notes are never usually in my ownership for long, today on seeing two generations of the royal family representing the Head of State on the same value bank note of £5 when there should usually only be one for all denominations, I found myself questioning quite a lot about the British royal family.
As most of you will know we had a change of monarch back in 2022 after Queen Elizabeth II passed away. Officially crowned in 2023 King Charles III is our new king. And as with all coinage and notes the monarch is stamped firmly on the front of each one.
Monarchy, England Coinage and Notes
The first coins in England were struck 2000 years ago using a design based on Greek coinage. However, after the Roman invasion England used a Roman coinage system until the decline of the Romans around 500 AD. It was at this point when the silver penny claimed the title of most circulating coin in England.
The monarch and the UK monetary system have a very close relationship. The physical notes and coins are going through a transitional period until all the former Queen Elizabeth portrait money is removed from circulation.
But seeing these two £5 notes and the mother and son pictured on them provoked my curiosity as to how close the monetary system in Britain and the Royal Mint are to each other.
It's absolutely great living in a monarchical democracy like the United Kingdom. Alright, I admit I'm being a little sarcastic but not entirely. When I was younger I used to hang around a lot of friends who were very anti-monarchist, some probably still are. For me when it came to the royal family I was always quite neutral.
Back then my bottom line was if they generate us more income than they cost us taxpayers then I couldn't care less. And believe me they generate us far more than they cost us. The total annual cost of the royal family to the British taxpayer, via the Sovereign Grant, is £1.29 per citizen per year, that's a total annual cost of around £87m.
In terms of how much they generate in income for the UK the total far outweighs the cost to the taxpayer, the British royal family bring in a whopping £1.7bn to the UK each year. They are literally a money making monarchy.
Monarchy - The Nice Part
For those of you monarchy haters out there who don't live in a monarchical democracy take a step back. Royal institutions are not intrinsically evil but I admit there is a dark side to some.
As I've got older I have come to realise that the royal family plays a far more important role in my society than I realised before. During times of crisis they can provide a very powerful and unique source of comfort to millions. As they are not a political royal family and have no say in the running of the country and have no political power, albeit arguably some influence, they can do all sorts of things to 'warm the cockles'. I have seen it happen many, many times.
To most people in Britain the British royal family is therefore more of a celebrity-type fixture than anything else. It's genuinely nice to see that as a country we have something non-political to point to when it comes to connecting and identifying with the state. We can even celebrate with them. When Jubilees, for example, come round the country parties. It's really quite nice to see strangers coming together on the streets and dancing, eating and laughing just because of the royal family. The royal family has a genuinely uniting quality about them.
People who live in countries without a non-political royal family don't understand sometimes, yet they are very judgemental and keen to berate and criticise. The levels of ignorance I have witnessed during my internet travels is astonishing. I'm not here to extol the virtues of the British royal family, although they have some virtues for sure, but I am also not here to not set the record straight.
Monarchy and Murky Money
So that's the nice part of living in a country that has a monarch as Head of State without political authority. But then there's the money. This is where things get murky. To start with to see one family that takes taxpayer money to partly fund its existence which is an extravagantly opulent existence, while many other British families struggle daily to make ends meet doesn't sit well with me at all.
Then we return to the monetary system, and this is where things get very murky. By the end of the tenth century England possesses the most advanced coinage system in the world. Royal pennies were the only royal coins in circulation right up until 1280. But by the 1450's new denominations surfaced culminating in a regular gold coinage under King Henry VII.
(Henry VII, fine gold sovereign of twenty shillings, 1492-1493, worth £875,000)
If you were caught counterfeiting the King's coins you could be either imprisoned for a very long time or even face the death penalty.
It's incredible to think that right up until the 19th century the Royal Mint was physically based in the Tower of London and under the direct control of the King or Queen. However, the industrial revolution changed the game and by the 1960's the Royal Mint's new home is found in Cardiff, Wales. Nonetheless after 1000 years the monarch is still imprinted on every single coin and note in circulation.
Central Bank System
This neatly brings me back to my two £5 notes and the relationship of money and the monarchy. We all know the central banking system is corrupted to the core, the same can obviously be said of international banks like the IMF or the World Bank. We all know that there is a cartel of central banks working with the main private banks in conjunction with governments to make life as financially difficult as possible for the very people they are supposed to make life better for. This scenario is playing out in many countries across the world.
We all know the hideous central financial systems across the world and the global institutions that implement the wider financial global order are doing what they do to purely serve themselves - a tiny elite minority of people. While the rest of us suffer.
In my country with the King as Head of State I simply can not believe he is unaware of this situation. Given how strictly controlled by the monarchy the flow of money was right from the outset, right from its very existence, it is impossible to countenance an ignorant monarch. And of course as previously mentioned the Crown and money are still intrinsically connected by way of the Royal Mint which is very much operational in today's society, irrespective of the digital world we now live in.
Watch Out For the New £10 Bank Note With Lower Serial Numbers
Returning to my original question which of those £5 notes is worth more? Obviously right now they have the same fiat value, but if I hang on to the Queen Elizabeth note I reckon if I give it a few decades I might be a little quids in! Perhaps!
However, on a more serious note should I find myself in receipt of the new £10 King Charles note I will be paying very close attention to it. Every single bank note in circulation has a unique serial number. In April the Bank of England released the lowest serial numbers for each denomination of the new King Charles note, they are as follows:
- £5: CA 01 000001
- £10: HB 01 000001
- £20: EH 01 000001
- £50: AJ 01 000001
The King himself has possession of those notes. But other notes with lower serial numbers could well be worth a fortune. At a recent auction one £10 King Charles note with serial number HB01 000002 sold for £17,000. While HB01 000003 sold for £5,500 and HB01 000004 sold for £2,400. It's crazy! But right now it's crazy enough to be checking your £10 notes in Britain!