I posted recently in The first new coins to be issued for King Charles III about the designs of the first two coins that are to be issued with the portrait and name of the new King. In that I commented that the monarch’s name is not rendered as Carolus to match the rest of the Latin inscription of his title but as Charles. I should perhaps have suggested that I regretted this change, but the late Queen was always named on her coins as Elizabeth not Elizabetha.
Today the Special Correspondent alerted me to a pretty scathing letter about the Royal Mint in The Times from Gregory Edmund the director of numismatics at the prestigious London coin and medal specialists Spink and Son. In it he criticises the Mint both for producing coins before the Coronation - to literally cash in on Christmas sales - and in using English rather than Latin for the Sovereign’s name. The same points are raised in an article in The Daily Telegraph, which quotes Mr Edmund’s forceful criticism as well as a response from the Royal Mint.
It should be pointed out that the obverse of the new coins carries the value, fifty pence and five pounds, in English behind the King’s head. Although the designs are good Iwould prefer to have the value on the reverse of a coin rather than the obverse. This would inter alia avoid or reduce the mixing of Latin and English.
The article can be read at Vale, Carolus: Latin name for King Charles dropped from new coins
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