The Cayman Islands prepare the E series with the king

On 4 November 2026, Norma Connolly reported in the Cayman Compass (opens in a new tab) that the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority is already at work on a banknote design carrying the image of King Charles III. This note separates the Cabinet summary from what the authority told the paper. No Cayman Islands banknote is in Notofilia’s virtual collection.

The E-series concept

Cabinet met on Wednesday 21 October 2026 in the Cabinet Conference Room of the Government Administration Building. The Cabinet Office published the summary on Friday 30 October. The PDF (MoM 63.26) (opens in a new tab) says, at point (d), that Cabinet approved, under section 27(1) of the Monetary Authority Act (2020 Revision), the design concept for the six denominations of the 2026 “E” Series circulating banknotes. The summary does not name the king and does not describe the vignettes.

What CIMA said

A spokesperson, for the Currency Division, told the Compass that the new series will carry updated designs, including the image of King Charles III. The authority is already in the preliminary stage: design development, coordination with specialist currency printers, and quality-assurance reviews. On when the public will see the notes, she said the work is a long one and that there is no official launch date. Once the notes are finalised and approved, there will be more information.

Connolly writes that the portrait will appear on the 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 dollar notes. Those are the six denominations CIMA (opens in a new tab) lists in circulation today. The caption on the Compass’s opening photograph speaks of a Bank of England note, not of a Cayman design. The new design is not published.

What circulates now

On that page, CIMA lists features common to the notes now in use. Each measures 156 × 66 mm. The obverse carries the portrait of Elizabeth II, the coat of arms, and the motto. There is a security thread, a watermark, and serial numbers. The letter prefix marks the series of the printing. The printer of the notes issued so far is De La Rue, in England. The D series, of April 2011, was the first complete redesign of the six denominations. The Compass also dates the series still in use to 2011. CIMA does not say that De La Rue will print the E series.

Connolly recalls that the queen has been on British notes since March 1960 and on Cayman notes since 1971, when the Cayman Islands Currency Board issued its own currency and replaced Jamaica’s. That chronology is the newspaper’s.

The 2026 coins

The coins have already changed effigy. The release of 9 October 2026 (opens in a new tab) presents the four pieces — 25, 10, 5, and 1 cent — struck by the Monnaie de Paris. For the first time the obverse carries Charles III. Weights, diameters, alloys, and reverses stay as they were. The notice of 16 October (opens in a new tab) says the lower denominations are already entering circulation and the higher ones will follow over the coming months; for now there are few new coins. Elizabeth II coins remain legal tender. The Compass of 4 November says the king’s coins circulated last month, and a photograph caption places the head “on the back.” CIMA says the obverse.

The United Kingdom, as a contrast

The Bank of England (opens in a new tab) issued, on 5 June 2024, the 5, 10, 20, and 50 pound notes with the portrait of Charles III, and no other change of design. Elizabeth II notes remain legal tender and circulate alongside the new ones. The Compass recalls that issue. It also writes that coins and, in time, notes with Elizabeth II will remain legal tender in the Cayman Islands “for the foreseeable future.” That sentence is the newspaper’s. CIMA’s coin release does say it of the queen’s pieces. Of the notes, the November spokesperson set no term.

The stock in circulation

CIMA’s statistics table (opens in a new tab), in the third-quarter 2026 column, sums 158,210,295 Cayman Islands dollars in notes. That is currency in circulation, not a collector’s price. The Compass, as of 30 September, rounds the figure to 158.2 million. The same table still lists 103,400 dollars in 40-dollar notes and 320,110 in 70-dollar notes. Connolly writes that the 40-dollar note was issued in 1981, with Elizabeth II and the Pirates Week Festival, and was withdrawn from circulation in 1993, and that the 70-dollar note, of 2023, marks the first anniversary of the queen’s death and the Platinum Jubilee: 10,000 were printed, sold as souvenirs, and not put into general circulation. Ten thousand 70-dollar notes would come to 700,000. The table lists 320,110. This note does not reconcile the two figures.