King George Preceded Queen Elizabeth II on the Belizean Dollar

Kareem Michael

According to Governor Michael, the likeness of Queen Elizabeth II has changed several times over the years as she grew older. Adding a bit of historical context to the ongoing conversation, Michael said that preceding the Queen of England on the Belizean dollar was King George.

Kareem Michael, Governor, Central Bank of Belize

“In our discussions with our printers, this subject has been brought up before where they have confirmed or asked us to consider whether or not we would like somebody else on the note.  And, of course, by what you have seen, the answer has been for us to stick with the late queen and that has a lot of historical context and governance context to it and I think you’re familiar with that as well being the head of state. Now other countries in the Caribbean have moved away from it and in our past we have updated her likeness. So the queen was introduced on our bill, and I think thereabout in 1973, 1975, and before that it was King George, if anybody is able to get their hands on some of those old notes, and we have updated her picture as she aged.  So in discussions with our printers, we’ve always had this whether or not we should keep updating her image or to change and that’s the extent of it.”