Royal cypher

The Royal Cypher is the Sovereign's personal device or monogram. It is impressed upon Royal and State documents and is used by government departments.

The public use of the royal initials dates at least from early Tudor times, and early on was simply the initial of the Sovereign with, after Henry VIII's reign, the addition of the letter R for Rex or Regina. The letter I for Imperatrix was added to Queen Victoria's monogram after she became Empress of India in 1877. The initials - which had no set pattern or form of lettering laid down - were usually shown in company with the Royal arms or crown as on the King's manors and palaces, such as those of Henry VIII on the gatehouse of St James's Palace, and the purpose seems to have been simply to identify a Sovereign. Since a Sovereign often uses the same arms as his or her predecessor, a particular Sovereign cannot always be identified by the arms alone. The initials were used mostly on government papers, duty stamps and similar objects, and were sometimes surmounted by a stylised version of the St. Edward's Crown or, more recently, the Imperial State Crown. (In Scotland, the Crown of Scotland appears in place of the Imperial crown).

Distinction continues to be made between the personal cypher and the simpler, more workaday public initials, the former being the Sovereign's own monogram and the latter simply a means of identifying a reign. Nowadays, the initials are also called the royal cypher, but to aid clarification the monogram is referred to as the royal cypher interlaced and reversed.

The Queen's cypher consists of 'E II R', standing for 'Elizabeth II' and for 'Regina', meaning 'Queen'.

Cyphers for other members of the Royal Family are designed by the College of Arms or Court of the Lord Lyon and are subsequently approved by The Queen.