One pound (British coin)

The circulating British one pound (£1) coin is minted from a nickel-brass alloy of approximately 70% copper, 24.5% zinc, and 5.5% nickel. The coin weighs 9.50 grams (0.34 oz) and has a diameter of 22.50 millimetres (0.89 in.).^[1] The value of the composition metals in a £1 coin amount to approximately 4.7p.

The coin was introduced on 21 April 1983 to replace the Bank of England one pound note, which ceased to be issued at the end of 1984 and was removed from circulation (though still redeemable at the Bank's offices) on 11 March 1988. One pound notes are still issued in Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, and by the Royal Bank of Scotland, but the pound coin is much more widely used. It was given the nickname "round pound" on introduction, although this term did not remain in common use.

As of the 31st of March 2010 there were an estimated 1.474 billion £1 coins in circulation, of which 43 million (2.94%) are estimated to be counterfeit (see "Conterfeiting"). ^[2]

Designs

The £1 coin has the standard obverse designs used on all contemporary British coins, namely the effigy of Queen Elizabeth II by Arnold Machin in 1983 and 1984, by Raphael Maklouf between 1985 and 1997, and by Ian Rank-Broadley since 1998. All have had the inscription ELIZABETH II D G REG F D date.

Uniquely amongst modern British coinage, the £1 coin has a mint mark: a small crosslet found on the milled edge that represents Llantrisant in South Wales, where the Royal Mint has been based since 1968.^[3]

An interesting feature of this denomination is that the design of the reverse of the coin changed each year between 1983 and 2008 to show, in turn, an emblem representing the UK, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and England, together with an appropriate edge inscription. The inscription ONE POUND appears at the bottom of all reverse designs before April 2008.

In August 2005 the Royal Mint launched a competition to find new reverse designs for all circulating coins apart from the £2 coin.^[4] The winner, announced in April 2008, was Matthew Dent, whose designs were gradually introduced into the circulating British coinage from summer 2008.^[5] The designs for the 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p and 50p coins depict sections of the Royal Shield that form the whole shield when placed together. The new £1 coin design features the shield in its entirety, representing the UK as a whole. The inscription ONE POUND appears on either side of the emblem.

The reverse designs are as follows.

All years except 1998 and 1999 have been issued into circulation, although the number issued has varied enormously – 1983 and 1984 in particular had large mintages to facilitate the changeover from paper notes, while some years such as 1986 and 1988 are only rarely seen (although 1988 is more noticeable as it has a unique reverse). Production since 1997 has been reduced, thanks to the introduction of the circulating two pound coin.

Mintages

Counterfeiting

A Royal Mint survey in January 2011 found that an estimated 2.94% (or 1 in 34) of all £1 coins in circulation are counterfeit. This rate has been increasing rapidly from 2.06% in 2008, to 2.58% in 2009, and to 2.81% in 2010, with the highest level of counterfeits being in Northern Ireland (3.6%) and the South East and London (2.97%), with the lowest being in Northwest England. ^[11] Some estimates place the figure closer to 5%.^[12] An earlier survey in 2006 gave an estimate of 1.7%, which itself was nearly twice earlier estimates.^[13][14] The significant increase of counterfeit £1 coins in recent times between 2008 and 2009 can be easily traced to the peak of the Late-2000s recession in September 2008.

In July 2010, it was reported there were so many counterfeit pound coins in circulation (about 2.81% or about 1 in 36) that the Royal Mint were considering removing the current £1 coin from circulation and replacing it with a new design.^[15] Bookmakers Paddy Power offered odds of 6/4 (bet £4 to win £10) that the £1 coin would be removed from circulation.^[16]

One common method of detecting counterfeits (if the sound of the coin on a table or the colour of the metal does not indicate something suspicious) is to check whether the reverse matches the edge inscription for the alleged year – it is extremely common for counterfeiters to get this wrong.^[17] Also, the writing on the edge may be in the wrong font and look very poor, and the coins often generally look much less sharp and defined, lacking intricate details. Most counterfeit £1 coins in circulation are made of brass, and most lead copies are easy to spot and are quickly removed from circulation.

The Swazi lilangeni is minted from the same planchets as the British pound coin, and hence has the same chemical constitution, diameter, and mass.^[18] The lilangeni, however, is worth significantly less: the 2008 exchange rate is around 14 emalangeni to the pound. This has enabled it to be used for vending machine fraud, and payment fraud in situations where the receiver is unlikely to examine the coins closely.^[19]

Further reading

In an April 1993 The New Yorker article 'Real Britannia', Julian Barnes describes the meetings to choose the 1994–1997 reverse designs.^[20] This is reprinted in his book Letters from London as 'Britannia's New Bra Size'.

See also

• Pound sterling
• Banknotes of the pound sterling
• Coins of the pound sterling
• Coin counterfeiting

References