Redesigned currency notes featuring new imagery on the Eastern Caribbean (EC) bank notes, could begin circulating by 2027, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) announced during its 109th Monetary Council meeting on Oct. 18^th.

Under the agenda item “Change of Queen’s Image on Eastern Caribbean Currency,” the meeting’s communique revealed that the revamped EC$100 banknote is expected to be released by late 2027, followed by the $5, $10, $20, and $50 notes as existing stocks are used up.

The redesigned banknotes will showcase dual portraits of two distinguished nationals from the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU), with a total of ten prominent regional figures featured across all denominations.

It marks a departure from decades of tradition, as the late Queen Elizabeth II’s portrait has long adorned ECCB-issued notes and coins. The decision to remove the monarch’s image was made at the 105th Monetary Council meeting on July 21^st 2023, in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Council members agreed to replace the Queen’s image with the ECCU logo, pending a public consultation process that ran until December 31, 2023, inviting community feedback on the proposal and suggestions for the new designs.