How to make a buck on the return of the King(‘s shilling)

Edmund Greaves considers the new King Charles III banknotes and other notable June events amid the election buildup.

For the first time since the 1950s, we’re going to have a King staring at us when we pay in cash.

The Royal Mint is releasing new banknotes with King Charles III’s face on them as of 5 June. It is an exciting moment, the veritable return of the King(’s shilling). Although, this will be the first decimalised money we’ve had with a King on it, funnily enough.

It is worth keeping an eye out for these notes. Not just for sentimental reasons (which I will come to) – but because they might be worth more than their face value.

This comes down to how the serial numbers are organised on the new bills. When the new fiver was introduced in 2016, for example, notes with AA01, AK47, or even blocks such as 1111 or 666 were going for more than their face value on eBay.

Sequences of serial numbers, unsuspectingly spat out by cash machines, could even be worth something. Basically, if there’s some sort of weird rhyme or reason to it, it might be worth more than the face value!

Numismatics is something of a niche pursuit, and this is (mostly) in jest, but it does form an innocuous but important part of our everyday lives.

At times like this it is easy to think the new monarch on our money could be our last. Not because we’re about to become a republic…but because we might kill cash for good.

There is a powerful historicity in the money we use – to use a Philip K Dick-ism, money with the monarch’s face on it has ‘wu’. Wu is hard to explain but it relates to the value of the spirit or authenticity of a physical thing derived from the story behind it.

When you come to find yourself in possession of your first King Charles note, hold it tight and think of its wu. You’re holding an ancient technology that is still just as useful today as it was in the time of the ancient Greeks and Persians.

What other technologies do we still use so widely today, as in 400 BC? Not many.

What’s coming up in June?

We’ve been plunged unceremoniously into a General Election, but this isn’t happening in June. There is plenty to get through before that, but much of the Government machine has now entered ‘purdah’ so expect a lot of events from state institutions to be cancelled or rearranged.

There’s a huge load of conferences, awards and other live events in June – looks rather as if the hangover of the pandemic on live events is truly over. We’ve got no less than 74 different ones listed over on our June 2024 dates crib so head over there to find what you need. Highlights include the Future of Investment Festival on 5 June and Corporate Adviser Awards on 27 June.

Elsewhere for the usual suspects, wages and employment are on 11 June, GDP on 12 June, inflation falls on 19 June with the next Bank of England rate decision on 20 June.

No doubt these will all be subsumed, co-opted, and generally bandied around during the hectic five weeks ahead as we get into the business end of the election campaign.

Good luck, and happy June to you all from us here at MRM and Mouthy Money.