Queen Elizabeth II has been on more banknotes from more countries than any
other person in history. Her portrait has graced the front of more than 100
banknotes, for more than 20 countries and overseas territories. She may not have
been the first English royal to be on a banknote but she was the first royal to
appear on a UK banknote. Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born in
London on April 21st, 1926 to the Duke and Duchess of York. Her father became
King George the sixth and her mother took the name Queen Elizabeth after her
uncle King Edward VIII abdicated the throne in 1936. Once her father
became King, young Elizabeth became first in line for the throne.
Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth in 1952
upon the death of her father King George VI. Even before her ascension,
Queen Elizabeth the second was already being featured on banknotes her first
known banknote appearance occurred at the young age of 8 on the 11th of March
1935 with the first Canadian dollar series. The portrait was taken by the
official royal photographer Marcus Adams. The very first banknote to feature her
likeness after her ascension to the throne was a third Canadian dollar
series on the 9th of September, 1954 featuring the controversial portrait
referred to as "the devil's head series" due to the image of a devil in her hair.
Even more interesting is that this portrait for this banknote was created
in 1951 by Yusuf Karsh before she became Queen and it was altered to remove her
Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara that was first featured on a stamp.
The first time we see the Queen with one of her crowns is on the Hong Kong dollar of 1952.
These banknotes were first created following the Japanese surrender of
World War II under the command of Admiral Cecile Harcourt of the British
Military Administration and had King George VI on them.
The photograph of Queen Elizabeth II was taken by Dorothy Wilding and is the
most frequently used image on banknotes. In this image queen elizabeth ii is seen
wearing King George the fourths state diadem crown from 1820 that contains
1333 diamonds. Pietro Annigoni's famous oil painting "The Queen Regent" from 1955 is
featured on many different labels from Fiji to Trinidad and Tobago. Here we have
a prime example of a rare replacement note in the Fijian $20 dollar banknote
signed by D.J. Barnes and I.A. Craik. In 1964 a more mature Queen Elizabeth II is
seen on the Australian banknote taken from a picture by Douglas Glass. She is
seen wearing the Robes of the Most Noble Order of the Garter and Queen Victoria's
Golden Jubilee necklace under the robes. The Most Noble Order of the Garter was
founded in 1348 by King Edward III as an order of chivalry with Saint
George as its patron saint. The order has exclusive membership of no more than
twenty four living members at a time. The Queen can also be seen wearing Queen
Alexandra from Denmark's cluster earrings they were given as a wedding
gift from King Edward the seventh to Queen Alexandra. The portrait from
Anthony Buckley from 1966 is used in the banknotes for Isle of Man, Saint Helena
and Fiji. Queen Elizabeth II is seen wearing Queen Victoria's Colette
Necklace, earrings from the Timur Ruby Necklace and a sash from the two royal
family orders of King George IV and King George V. In 1977 her royal
majesty Queen Elizabeth II celebrated 25 years at the throne with her Silver
Jubilee and it was captured in a photograph by Peter Grugeon. This image
was used on many banknotes depicted here on the East Caribbean $5 dollar banknote and
the Falkland Island five pound banknote. The Queen is seen wearing the Grand
Duchess Vladimir's tiara which was smuggled out of Russia during the
Russian Revolution by British secret agent
Albert Stopford she is also seen wearing Queen
Victoria's Golden Jubilee necklace. Now we move on to one of the most unusual
banknotes featuring Queen Elizabeth the second on this Canadian banknote. It was
created in 1986 as a part of the birds of Canada series and features a
photograph taken once again by Anthony Buckley.
What makes this banknote unusual and unique is that the Queen is depicted
very casually with a modest dress and pearls given to her by her father King
George VI. As we progress down the life of Queen Elizabeth II
through banknotes, we see a more mature Queen with each image. In 1992
photographer Terry O'Neill took the image of the Queen in the banknotes of
Guernsey and the Bahamas seen here. She is wearing the Burmese Ruby tiara that
she authorized to be created in 1973 with rubies given to her by the Burmese
people of what is now Myanmar. In the early 1990's, Australia made a decision to
convert its banknotes from paper to polymer. In some ways the change was
driven by the hot and humid conditions in the South Pacific but it was also an
attempt to create a closer economic collaboration amongst its neighbors. The
first polymer banknote from Australia was a commemorative one from 1992
featuring an Aboriginal man, the second? a new five dollar banknote put into
circulation in 1996 showing Queen Elizabeth the second. The Queen has also
been shown on small denomination and high denomination banknotes. Jersey and
Gibraltar have issued a hundred pound banknotes. While they are rarely used,
they represent the highest denomination banknotes in circulation that exist.
On the complete opposite end, Hong Kong produced 1 cent banknotes in 1953 and
then again in the 1960's. Not only are they low in denomination but they are
also physically very small. On these banknotes from jersey series 2010 and
the Cayman Islands are portraits taken at the Sandringham house by Mark
Lawrence in 1999. They feature a more mature Queen Elizabeth II. Once
again she is wearing the grand duchess Vladimir's tiara
with 15 pearl drops. On May 23rd, 2012 the Royal Bank of Scotland created the
commemorative 10-pound banknote with four different pictures to surmise her life
and commemorate her Diamond Jubilee. The main image on the far left was taken at
the Epsom racecourse in 2008, the second image was taken in the 1940's by Dorothy Wilding,
the third image was taken at the Balmoral Castle and the last image was
taken at a traditional service. One thing that is unusual is that the
same portrait of the Queen has been used on Bank of England currency since the
1990's. While she has aged on other banknotes she remains the same age in
England! Many countries have replaced the Queen with local leaders, local flora and
fauna or other images that show off the country's culture as seen here on Fijian
banknotes. But many still keep her Majesty on their banknotes even if it's
just one denomination such as Canada Australia and New Zealand. No matter what
the future holds for the Queen she will continue to be immortalized not just
through her actions but through her banknotes.