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As India gets over its remonetisation drive of large currencies, the UK begins its exercise to replace hundreds of millions of £1 coins with new anti-counterfeit coins
The new state-of-the-art £1 coins with counterfeit proof features will enter circulation on March 28. The current £1 round coins will become valueless after October 15.
The government had announced demonetisation of the £1 round coin in the 2014 Budget to thwart sophisticated counterfeiters.
£1 coins account for a large number of coins lying unused in piggy banks and coin jars. The Treasury estimates that of the 1.3 billion pound worth of coins stored in saving jars, around a third are £1 coins. Piggy bank savers have been asked to spend or bank the round coin before its expiry in October. The Treasury called on everyone to hunt down their hidden wealth sooner.
This is for the first time that the Royal Mint will issue a new £1 coin since its first launch on April 21, 1983. Replacing the £1 coin is the biggest challenge since the scrapping of the three-decade-old 50p in 1998.
More than 4,000 new coins roll off the Royal Mint every minute— it is producing 1.5 billion new £1 coins.
Fight forgery
Demonetisation of popular £1 round coins was the recommended by the Royal Mint to beat ever increasing counterfeit coins. A 2015 study by the official coin maker said that 2.6 per cent of the £1 coins in circulation were bogus. That means one in 30 of the £1 coin is fake, which amounts to 45 million fake pounds in number and value. It is expected that the new hi-tech futuristic coins will fight forgery.
Bold design
The coin reflects superb craftsmanship and heritage of the United Kingdom. The distinct 12-sided coin is unique in feel and sight—easily identifiable by the blind. Its tail side has a beautiful engraving of the four national flowers—English rose, the Welsh leek, the Scottish thistle and the Northern Irish shamrock—blooming from a single stem placed within the royal coronet. Below that marks ‘ONE POUND’. On the other side, the coin profiles the fifth coin portrait of the Queen, designed by Jody Clark and unveiled in 2015.
The fifth portrait of The Queen. Pic: The Royal Mint
David Pearce, a 15-year-old grammar school student, won the competition to design the new £1 coin’s tail side, beating more than 6,000 nation-wide entries.
Though a bit larger than the round £1, the new £1 coin is lighter and thinner. It weighs 8.75 grams and has a thickness of 2.88 mm. The maximum diameter (point to point) is 23.43 mm.
'Most secure' coin
“The new 12-sided coin will be the world's most secure coin in circulation,” the government said. Various innovative security features have been incorporated in the new design that make it harder to counterfeit. The Royal Mint has claimed it to be “the most secure coin in the world.”
The Mint has embedded a few security settings in the design to outsmart counterfeiters. The bimetallic making, 12-side unique shape, micro lettering on the rims will make the task tough for the fake coin maker. The coin has milled edges with special grooves on alternate sides.
The micro letters on the rim read ‘one pound’ on the head side and the year of release on the other side. The bimetallic feature effects a gold colour (nickel-brass) on the outer ring and silver colour (nickel-plated alloy) on its inner area. A hologram effect changes ‘£’ sign to ‘1’ when the coin is tilted in hand. A secret high security feature that no one can replicate will distinguish the original coin from the fake.
Fine tuning
Business houses and retailers have been told to make necessary changes in their cash handling equipment ahead of the coin introduction. The Royal Mint has released free training resources to help traders configure their system. For business, however, converting the equipment’s mechanism to suit the new coin is a costly affair. They had a harrowing time when their cash machines were upgraded to accept plastic money.
About 2,00,000 trial sample £1 coins with no redeemable value are already in circulation to help firms adjust their vending machines and car parks before the real coin arrives. Though not legal tender, these trial-marked coins are a favourite among savvy coin collectors who buy it online from auction websites for prices as high as £200.
The changeover
£1 round coins in bags of 20 can be exchanged for notes at banks or post offices. Both the round pound and the new pound coins will remain in circulation during the six-month transition period from March end to mid October. On October 15, businesses will stop accepting the £1 round coins. Then the defunct coins will be melted down for making the new pound.
