It can be hard to say goodbye
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Come March 2017, we will have to bid one final, emotional farewell to one of our closest friends. Always by our side and accepted by everyone, our trusty, understated one pound coin, which has lined our pockets for the past 32 years, will finally give way to a brand new, 12-sided reincarnation which actually, in a long winded sort of way, had its origins in the 1930s.
Yes, the new one pound coin, curated by the Royal Mint and partly designed by a man from Walsall, has just started production and will have 12 sides to be reminiscent of the old threepenny bit (ask your grandparents). It was a coin introduced during the reign of Edward VIII which was popular in the Second World War because of its distinctive shape, which made it easy to recognise during the blackout. Although, let’s hope that won’t be quite as relevant this time around…
The new coin will be the second incarnation of the one pound coin, which replaced the one pound note in April 1983, and will rival the larger two pound coin with a grandiose new bi-metallic styling. It will, however, be slightly smaller than the current two pound coin to help to differentiate. As one would expect, the coin will feature her Majesty’s face on one side and a patriotic new design – some sort of horticultural thing – will appear on the reverse.
In its old age, the pound coin has become increasingly vulnerable to counterfeiters. Although 2.2 billion pound coins have left the conveyor belt since 1983, approximately three in every 100 have been found to be fake. Fortunately, ground-breaking new technology has allowed the new coin to supposedly be “the most secure circulating coin in the world”.
We can expect to see the new coin in March 2017, although there will be a six month switch-over period during which time both coins will be legal tender, just to confuse us.