King Charles won’t be on the $20 bill until 2027, Bank of Canada says

It’s been a full year since the coronation of King Charles III, and 20 months since the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. But the Bank of Canada has just announced that a new $20 bill featuring the King’s likeness is still almost three years away, and won’t be issued until early in 2027.

The federal government already announced at the coronation that King Charles would feature on the new $20 bill, with the Canadian National Vimy Memorial remaining on the back of the banknote.

However, in an update on the Bank of Canada web site, the organization says it is still in the design phase for the new bill. “This includes historical and visual research and talking to experts and the Bank’s Indigenous Advisory Circle,” it notes.

The process of designing a new banknote involves several stages, it says, including research and development, design, and production. A key element of this process is to test out security features that are easy to check yet hard to counterfeit.

Once the preliminary design is approved by the finance minister, it will be developed and tested before moving to production. They unveiling of the new design will take place several months before it begins circulating, in order to raise awareness and educate the public, retailers, law enforcement agencies, financial institutions and others about its design and security features.