What happens to NZ’s coins and banknotes?

For most of us, seeing her face on our cash was the closest we got to the Queen.

But with Queen Elizabeth II no longer occupying her long-held position as New Zealand’s head of state, what happens now to the image of her head on our cash?

The Queen has appeared on the ‘‘heads’’ side of New Zealand coins since 1953 but did not appear on banknotes until 1967, when the Reserve Bank printed its third series of banknotes, this time in decimal currency. A Reserve Bank spokesperson said a change of sovereign made no immediate difference to the use, acceptance or status of existing currency. In the 1970s, it was not unusual to find coins up to 40 years old in change, some still bearing the images of King George V and King George VI, who died in 1936 and 1952 respectively.

That $20 bill you might have in your wallet is still just as valid as it was last week – and you will continue to see notes like it for quite a while. Cash will not be removed from circulation just because it shows the Queen. But her image will gradually move out of circulation as notes reach the end of their life and new orders are brought in. Generally, money is only removed from circulation when it is damaged.

Typically, about 20 million notes are declared unfit for circulation in a year. Last year, there was $1.28 billion in $20 notes circulating. That is about 64 million notes.

New banknotes are printed in Canada and the Reserve Bank said an order was placed every year or two. The spokesperson said there were too many variables to give a clear idea of when minting coins featuring the new monarch would start but it was a few years away.

‘‘We would naturally take steps to be ready to mint with the new effigy when available,’’ he said. ‘‘However when our mints start production of NZ [currency] would relate less to a change of sovereign than to our current stock levels reaching the point that they are needed.’’

When coins were produced featuring King Charles, they would have the same physical characteristics as those featuring the Queen. Convention would dictate that he would face the opposite way but that would not be confirmed until the design was approved.

What the new $20 note would look like would be years away and the decision would not be dealt with until the current supply of notes was closer to running out, he said.

‘‘We manufacture these notes infrequently and do not plan to destroy stock or shorten the life of existing banknotes just because they show the Queen. This would be wasteful and poor environmental practice.’’ The Reserve Bank spokesperson said it would probably take a few years for King Charles to start to appear on coins, and even longer for $20 notes, given the standard stock holding levels.

It could be along time before there are no QEII notes left, last year there was still $1.9m in £10 notes in the hands of the public. New Zealand has not used those since 1967.