With the £5 polymer note now in our change all attention turns to the new 12 sided £1 coin that will enter circulation next Spring in March 2017. The current £1 coin was first issued in 1983 and having been in circulation for over 30 years is one of the oldest British coins still in circulation. Over time, it has become increasingly vulnerable to counterfeiting so from March 2017 our beloved pound coin will be replaced by a new 12-sided, bi metallic, thinner £1 coin which will become the most secure circulating coin in the world. The Royal Mint is producing more than 1.4 billion of the new coins in advance of its March 2017 introduction. There will be a six-month period of co-circulation until Autumn 2017 when the current £1 will be removed from circulation and cease to be legal tender.
Coin Specification
| Shape | 12-sided with rounded edges ('radical chords') and corners |
| Diameter | Maximum (point to point) 23.43mm; minimum (edge to edge) 23.03mm |
| Edge Thickness | 2.8mm |
| Weight | 8.75g |
| Metallic composition | Nickel-brass outer; nickel-plated solid alloy inner |
| Additional features | The Royal Mint’s new anti-counterfeiting technology; milled edges |
All businesses that accept cash need to plan in advance for the introduction of the new £1 coin, to ensure they are prepared before it’s official release. Our coin handling devices the SMART Hopper and SMART Coin System have undergone extensive testing and we foresee no complications for Operators after the new £1 coin enters circulation. All ITL coin handling equipment will need to be updated and ITL currency datasets are freely available now via Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein! or from our website.
Key Dates
March 2017 – New £1 coin launched
Autumn 2017 – End of co-circulation period and demonetisation of the round £1 coin
Second half of 2017 – Polymer £10 launched
Visit www.thenewpoundcoin.com for more information
Did you know?
The pound coin (£1) was introduced in 1983 to replace the Bank of England £1 banknote which was discontinued in 1984.
The designs on the one pound coin change annually in a largely five-year cycle.
All modern coins feature a profile of the current monarch's head. The direction in which they face changes with each successive monarch, a pattern that began with the Stuarts.
From a very early date, British coins have been inscribed with the name of the ruler of the kingdom in which they were produced, and a longer or shorter title, always in Latin.
In the years since decimalisation, a number of changes have been made to the GBP coinage. The twenty pence (20p) coin was introduced in 1982 to fill the gap between the 10p and 50p coins.
A circulating bimetallic two pound (£2) coin was introduced in 1998. There had previously been unimetallic commemorative £2 coins which did not normally circulate.