For nearly 90 years, the Canadian $20 bill has had one consistent face on it. That streak is finally ending.
Queen Elizabeth II first appeared on the note back in 1935, as an eight-year-old princess, and stuck around through nearly every redesign since, right up through the polymer bills most Canadians are still carrying around today.
A new $20 bill featuring King Charles III was officially unveiled on September 3, at Ottawa’s Rogers Centre, with Governor General Louise Arbour on hand to deliver remarks at the ceremony.
It marks the first time in generations that a different monarch’s portrait has appeared on Canada’s most common paper bill.
A new look
This isn’t just a simple portrait swap. The new $20 note is designed to be held vertically rather than the traditional horizontal format Canadians have used for decades.
King Charles’s portrait sits at the centre of the design, continuing the long-standing tradition of featuring Canada’s head of state on the bill. According to the Bank of Canada, the note also weaves in several botanical elements as a nod to the King’s long-running advocacy for sustainability and the environment. The portrait itself is rendered in raised ink, so it can be felt as well as seen.
The Bank of Canada says this note introduces security features that have never appeared on Canadian currency before. That includes a security bubble containing magnified “20”s, a colour-shifting maple leaf, a pulsing maple leaf built into the note’s purple security stripe, and a poppy design with spinning bands.
The purple stripe itself is a first too, giving the vertical $20 a distinct, easily identifiable colour that sets it apart from other denominations.
The bill includes a tactile feature, large high-contrast numbers, and the green colouring long associated with Canada’s $20 notes.
Other symbolism
Thirteen flowers appear on the note, one for each province and territory’s official floral emblem, all connected by winding stems and leaves modelled after the artwork found in the Books of Remembrance on Parliament Hill.
A separate circular window on the bill features four plants with deep cultural significance to Indigenous Peoples in Canada: wild strawberries, western red cedar, arctic cotton, and braided sweetgrass. According to the Bank of Canada, these specific plants were recommended by its Indigenous Advisory Circle and represent sustenance, gratitude, and healing.
Some of the maple leaves are security features. Bank of Canada
The maple leaf shows up throughout the design as well, both decoratively and as one of the note’s core security features.
On the military history side, the note features the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, built on the site of the 1917 Battle of Vimy Ridge in France, as a tribute to Canada’s sacrifices during the First World War. A scattering of poppies appears alongside it, a nod to the flowers that famously grew across battlefields and cemeteries on the Western Front during the war.
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The Bank of Canada says Canadians can expect to start seeing it in circulation as of February 2027.
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