Australian coins featuring King Charles III are set to be released by the end of the year.
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Six different effigies of Queen Elizabeth II have adorned the nation's coins since her 1953 coronation.
Now Aussies will need to get used to a new face, as assistant minister for treasury Andrew Leigh revealed when they could expect the change.
"There's a range of things we need to get right," Dr Leigh told ABC Canberra.
"The Mint's dies need to be appropriately tested, each of the dies need to sustain some 200,000 to 300,000 coin printings, so all of that testing process is in place.
"You can be confident that it will take place before the end of the year and we'll have a big announcement on that."
In line with tradition King Charles' portrait will face left on the coins, the opposite direction to his mother.
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"I'm keen to make sure we get a lot of those new coins out because I know for the vast majority of Australians, this will be the first time they hold a coin in their hand which has a King rather than a Queen on it. So it could be a big moment," Dr Leigh said.
He said the new coins wouldn't come at a major cost as the mint was regularly updating its dies.
"They'll run their dies with the Queen's effigies on them to the end of their natural life and then they'll just substitute in dies with the King's effigy.
"We have actually had half a dozen different effigies of Queen Elizabeth II during the course of her reign, so to change an effigy isn't as big a thing as you might imagine.
"But of course, it's seismic when suddenly you've got a different Monarch on the coin facing the opposite direction."
Following the Queen's death in September 2022 the Royal Australian Mint produced a memorial coin design which read "Elizabeth II 1952-2022".
Coins featuring the Queen's image will remain in circulation as legal tender.
While King Charles will adorn Australia's coins, he is not replacing the Queen on the $5 bank note.
The Reserve Bank instead decided the new note would feature a design that "honours the culture and history of the First Australians".
The new bank notes are set to take years to be designed and printed, with the RBA to consult with First Australians on the design.
