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Harcourt Fuller, Associate Professor of History, Georgia State University

Putting King Charles III on British currency bucks a global trend to honor diverse national heroes on coins and bills

About 4.5 billion bank notes and more than 27 billion coins featuring the queen's image are now circulating in the U.K. Daniel Harvey Gonzalez/In Pictures via Getty Images

For more than 60 years, the image of Queen Elizabeth II graced the currencies of the United Kingdom as well as some of the Commonwealth nations. During her historic reign she appeared on at least 33 different currencies globally, a Guinness World Record. This includes not only money in the U.K., but also currency in Australia, Belize and some Eastern Caribbean countries, as well as the $20 bill in Canada.

Placing a portrait of a monarch on its money is a long tradition in the U.K. For more than a millennium, beginning with the reign of Alfred the Great, the Royal Mint has been putting kings and queens on coinage.

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