Buckingham Palace has revealed King Charles III’s new cypher.
The cypher, which will be used on government records and post boxes, will replace Queen Elizbeth’s old cypher E II R.
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Designed by the College of Arms, the cypher has a ‘C’ for Charles and ‘R’ for Rex, meaning king in Latin. It also has three strokes in the centre for the third King Charles.
The design was personally selected by Charles and there is a slightly different version for Scotland, featuring the Scottish crown. The Scottish version was approved by Lord Lyon, King of Arms.
The cypher will be used for the first time this week as the official period of royal mourning ends.
It will be up to individual departments to implement the new cypher. It’s likely the process will be a gradual change over, particularly as it pertains to post boxes and other government property. Queen Elizabeth’s cypher will be seen around the country for some time yet.
The College of Arms has been designing royal cyphers since 1484. The college is responsible for creating and maintaining official registers of coats of arms and pedigrees.
The new cypher marks the start of Charles’ reign as king which is likely to be quite different from his mother’s.
Where Elizabeth took a “never complain, never explain” approach palace insiders believe Charles is likely to be much more involved with the affairs of the country.
“He understands why his mother was much admired for her approach,” a source told New Idea.
“But Charles also believes people know he is not his mother, and he plans to do things his way. It’s not going to be some immediate seismic shift to how things are done, but we will see Charles beginning to inject some of his beliefs into the monarchy in coming months.”
Charles’ passion for the environment and social issues will likely influence the way he rules. It’s likely he’ll want to see action on those matters.
“Politicians should prepare for their new sovereign to be much more hands-on than his predecessor, especially when it comes to climate change, homelessness, and urban planning,” the source said.
For now of course the new King is just getting his feet under the desk but it will be interesting to see how things change in the coming months.
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