UPDATE: The Mint has chickened, and illiterately decided that their monarch is Charles and not Carolus.
May she rest in peace and rise in glory. She has been one of the very few people in our public life who actually did what she had undertaken to do.
It seems a long time since, in 1952, our head master summoned the School to tell us that we had a new sovereign. I must confess that in my childish mind, my first thought was "New coins and new stamps!"
I wonder if the next issue of coins will read CAROLUS III or CHARLES III.
'Carolus' might possibly be deemed too puzzling for common folk. After all, for a fair number of decades the coinage has carried a version of the royal name (Elizabeth) which is the same in Latin and English. And what about the Prayers After Sunday Mass?
But giving the name of a Monarch in Latin goes back even to those Iron Age monarchs whose coins circulated in this land before the Roman Conquest. A tradition defended by quite a continuity!
Moi, I'd like to see BRITANNIA return ... last seen on the 50 pence pieces of a couple of decades ago. I think the Stuarts brought her in to grace the backs of their base-metal coinage - but the design goes ultimately back to the Romans.
Of course, nowadays practically no transactions involve actual coins ...
7 comments:
But has His Majesty yet declared by what name he is to be known?
Even today, most of the time when you visit an historic church, you can only make a donation using hard cash or even a cheque.
She was never my monarch, but she was a woman of distinction, and I find myself very sad to see her go.
But I am sure she missed her husband a lot, so it isn't surprising to me that she passed away now. She got her to-do list done, and then followed. It is how a lot of old couples end up passing on.
On the theory that it is meaningful to die on a significant day, it's interesting that she died on the Virgin Mary's birthday.
The Prayer for the King can be found here, https://societyofstbede.wordpress.com/2022/09/08/prayer-for-the-king/
Australian predecimal coins included the royal title in Latin (including such names as "Edwardus", "Georgius" and latterly "Elizabeth") on the obverse, around the royal portrait, though the inscriptions on the reverse were in English ("one penny", or similar).
Decimal Australian coins similarly include their value on the reverse, in English ("1 dollar", "2 dollars") - but the inscription around the royal portrait is simply "Elizabeth II Australia", followed by their year of issue (1966 or whatever) - which is ambiguous as to whether it is in English or Latin, taking the phrase to be two nominatives in apposition, rather than putting the name of the Commonwealth in the genitive.
So - it is arguable that in Australia, too, we could expect our new coins to bear the inscription "Carolus III Australia 2023"... though with a sigh I concede that they will probably have "Charles" instead.
From the ABC's report concerning the new British coins bearing His Majesty's profile:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-30/coins-bearing-image-of-king-charles-revealed/101490348
The respective inscriptions on the 50p and £1 coins are symmetrically macaronic:
CHARLES III .D.G.REX.F.D.50 PENCE.2022.
CHARLES III .D.G.REX.F.D.5 POUNDS.2022.
But at least the Latin is on top, and the English below!
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