Brisbane
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Australia’s new $5 note will not feature Britain’s King Charles III but a new design that honors “the culture and history of First Australians”, its central bank announced on Thursday.
The design will replace the portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said in a statement, adding that the decision was made after consultation with the Australian government.
Will consult the bank. First Australian He added that designing the $5 banknote, which could be released, could take several years.
First Australian refers to the country’s indigenous population, or First Nations people, consisting of the people of the Torres Strait and Torres Strait Islanders, who are descendants of the world’s oldest continuous culture, having occupied the continent for more than 65,000 years. has done Together they make up about 3.2 percent of the country’s 25 million population.
Meanwhile, according to the RBA, the current $5 bill will continue to circulate and remain legal tender even after the new note is introduced. Officials have also said that existing coins bearing the Queen’s image will remain legal tender “in perpetuity”.
King Charles III will continue to be featured on the coins, which the Royal Australian Mint is expected to start producing “in the second half of this year,” Andrew Lee said. Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Finance told ABC Radio in an interview.
The mint has said it expects to unveil the design for the first King Charles coins early this year.
Billions of bills and coins around the world bearing Queen Elizabeth II’s image are in the process of being replaced after her death last September.
The Queen’s image appears on some banknotes and coins in the Commonwealth – an association of 54 countries, almost all of which were formerly used by the United Kingdom.
In Australia, the Queen’s portrait “has been represented on every Australian banknote series since her coronation,” for seven decades, according to the RBA.
— Anna Cobbin and Angus Watson contributed to this report.
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