Time has finally caught up with Queen Elizabeth II - on her money at least.
Her profile is visibly aged in a new coin portrait by Jody Clark that was unveiled on Monday. The royal image on Britain's coinage will, when this design goes into circulation later this year, be unmistakably that of an 88-year-old, including prominent wrinkles.
The dignity of the regal image can surely survive this numismatic realism. With her crown, big earring and half smile, the Queen looks as quietly authoritative on her latest coins as she did on her first in 1953. The Royal Mint changed her face in 1968, 1985 and 1998, making the new portrait the fifth.
Even these reluctant remodellings maintained an impression of timeless classical grace that made the ageing process almost unnoticeable - until now. In fact, the Queen has been idealised on her coinage far more than ancient rulers ever were.
This is the first fiscal image of her entire reign that lives up to the realism of ancient Roman coin portraits of emperors.
Nero, for instance, looks fat and puppyish on his coins. Romans liked their portraits realistic, and the imperial image on coins was frank because it needed to be authentic. Money must be the real thing.
However the royal head is portrayed, its presence puts Britain's coins in a very old tradition. Royal images have guaranteed the value of the pound, or serturtius, for millennia.
The first coins appeared in Iron Age Lydia and bore the image of a lion, a Lydian royal symbol. Soon Darius, ruler of the Persian empire, was portrayed on his 5th century BC coins as an archer. The royal portrait coin was born.
Yet some of the world's most potent currencies were created by republics with no monarch to portray. The euro's much more successful Renaissance predecessor the Florin, issued by the republic of Florence and accepted everywhere, bore the city's symbols, the fleur-de-lis and a picture of Saint John the Baptist, instead of a royal face.
Britain's royal coinage, though, is truly venerable. Anglo Saxon kings put their badly drawn heads on coins.
Offa in the eighth century aped a Roman emperor. He was portrayed in classical profile, just as the Queen is today.
Alfred the Great went for the Roman look as well.
The Queen's classical profile follows the convention set by Offa and Alfred and maintained by later monarchs. Oliver Cromwell had his face put on coins, posing as a Roman emperor.
The new portrait, however frank, has already been granted the Queen's seal of approval.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Queen Elizabeth II looks her age - on a new coin
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tK%2FMqWWcp51ku6bD0miuqKqcmXyivtOimqWdX2aEc4SXa2poppWseqS7yKdkqaeiqb%2BixdJmqK6dlaN6prjIs5ibnaSdeqq1jKyfnmWimq6tuNg%3D