Australia will remove the British monarch from its banknotes, replacing the late Queen Elizabeth II’s image on its $5 note with a design honouring Indigenous culture, the central bank said Thursday.
The decision to leave her successor King Charles III off the $5 note means no monarch would remain on Australia’s paper currency.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said it would consult Indigenous people on a new design that “honours the culture and history of the First Australians”.
[The British Commonwealth has hung together largely on the basis of affection for the late Queen Elizabeth II and not much else. King Charles III is hardly an inspirational or aspirational figure, and with his son actively undermining The Firm by attacking it as racist, it may collapse sooner than anyone thought after her death.
As an aside, the historical irony of a King Charles losing his head — symbolically, in this case — is pretty amusing on its own. — Ed]
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