One pound (British coin)

One pound

United Kingdom
Value	1 pound sterling
Mass	(Round) 9.5 g (12-sided) 8.75 g
Diameter	(Round) 22.5 mm (12-sided) 23.03-23.43 mm
Thickness	(Round) 3.15 mm (12-sided) 2.8 mm
Edge	(Round) Milled, with incuse lettering (12-sided) Alternately milled and plain
Composition	(Round) Nickel-brass (70% Cu, 24.5% Zn, and 5.5% Ni) (12-sided, outer ring) Nickel-brass (76% Cu, 20% Zn, and 4% Ni) (12-sided, inner circle) Nickel-plated alloy
Obverse
Design	Queen Elizabeth II
Designer	Jody Clark
Design date	2015 (round) 2016 (12-sided)
Reverse
Design	The shield of the Royal Coat of Arms (round) Rose, leek, thistle, and shamrock encircled by a coronet (12-sided)
Designer	Matthew Dent (round) David Pearce (12-sided)
Design date	2008 (round) 2016 (12-sided)

The British one pound (£1) coin is a denomination of the pound sterling. Its obverse bears the Latin engraving D G REG “Dei Gratia Regina” meaning, “By the grace of God, Queen” and F D meaning ”Fidei defensatrix" Defender of the Faith.^[1] It has featured the profile of Queen Elizabeth II since the coin's introduction on 21 April 1983.^[2] Four different portraits of the Queen have been used, with the latest design by Jody Clark being introduced in 2015. The design on the reverse side of the new 2017 coin features four emblems to represent each of the nations of the United Kingdom – the English rose, the leek for Wales, the Scottish thistle, and the shamrock for Northern Ireland – emerging from a single stem within a crown.

The £1 coin replaced the Bank of England £1 note, which ceased to be issued at the end of 1984 and was removed from circulation on 11 March 1988, though still redeemable at the Bank's offices, like all English banknotes. One-pound notes continue to be 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.

Since 28 March 2017, two versions of the one pound coin have been in circulation – the original round design and a new dodecagonal (12-sided) design.^[3] As of March 2014 there were an estimated 1,553 million round £1 coins in circulation,^[4] of which the Royal Mint estimated in 2014 that 3.04% (i.e. about 47 million) were counterfeit.^[5][6] In an effort to counter this, the Royal Mint introduced the new 12-sided coin, which is bimetallic like the current £2 coin, and features an undisclosed hidden security feature called 'iSIS' (Integrated Secure Identification Systems).^[7][8] The round pound will remain in circulation until 15 October 2017. After that date, the older coin can only be redeemed at banks.^[9]

Design

To date, five different obverses have been used. For the first three of these, the inscription was ELIZABETH II D.G.REG.F.D. 2013,^[10] where 2013 is replaced by the year of minting. The fourth design, unveiled in March 2015,^[11] expanded the inscription slightly to ELIZABETH II DEI.GRA.REG.FID.DEF. 2015. The fifth design, introduced in March 2017, reverted to D.G.REG.F.D.

In summary:

• In 1983 and 1984 the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by Arnold Machin appeared on the obverse,^[12] in which the Queen wears the 'Girls of Great Britain and Ireland' Tiara.
• Between 1985 and 1997 the portrait by Raphael Maklouf was used,^[12] in which the Queen wears the George IV State Diadem.
• Between 1998 and 2015 the portrait by Ian Rank-Broadley was used,^[12] again featuring the tiara, with a signature-mark IRB below the portrait.
• In 2015 the portrait by Jody Clark was introduced,^[13] in which the Queen wears the George IV State Diadem,^[14] with a signature-mark JC below the portrait.

In August 2005 the Royal Mint launched a competition to find new reverse designs for all circulating coins apart from the £2 coin.^[15] The winner, announced in April 2008, was Matthew Dent, whose designs were gradually introduced into the circulating British coinage from mid-2008.^[16] 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 shield in its entirety is featured on the £1 coin. The coin's obverse remains unchanged.

The design of the reverse of the coin was changed each year from 1983 to 2008 to show, in turn, an emblem representing the UK, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and England, together with an appropriate edge inscription. This edge inscription may frequently be "upside-down" (when obverse is facing upward).^[17] Since 2008, national-based designs have still been minted, but alongside the new standard version, and no longer in strict rotation. The inscription ONE POUND appears on all reverse designs.

In common with non-commemorative £2 coins, the £1 coin (except 2004–07 and the 2010–11 'capital cities' designs) 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.^[18]

The reverse of the new 12-sided bimetallic pound coin, introduced on 28 March 2017,^[3] was chosen by a public design competition.^[19] The competition to design the reverse of this coin was opened in September 2014.^[20] It was won in March 2015 by 15-year-old David Pearce from Walsall, and unveiled by Chancellor George Osborne during his Budget announcement. The design features a rose, leek, thistle and shamrock bound by a crown.^[11] The current round pound will remain legal tender alongside the new 12-sided design until 15 October 2017.^[3] After said date, the older round coin will only be redeemable at banks.

Mintage figures – Round coin

All years except 1998 and 1999 have been issued into circulation, although the number issued has varied enormously – 1983, 1984 and 1985 in particular had large mintages to facilitate the changeover from paper notes, while some years such as 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.

The final round coins minted for 2016 did not enter circulation, as they were only available through commemoriative sets.^[28] These were the shield from the Royal Coat of Arms by Matthew Dent, and a design by Gregory Cameron, Bishop of St Asaph, of four heraldic beasts.^[27][29]

Mintage figures – 12-sided coin

Counterfeiting

Royal Mint surveys estimate the proportion of counterfeit £1 coins in circulation. This was estimated at 3.04% in 2013, a rise from 2.74%.^[5][6] The figure previously announced in 2012 was 2.86%, following the prolonged rise from 0.92% in 2002–2003 to 0.98% in 2004, 1.26% in 2005, 1.69% in 2006, 2.06% in 2007, 2.58% in 2008, 2.65% in 2009, 3.07% in 2010 and 3.09% in 2011.^[31][32] Figures have generally been reported in the following year; in 2008 (as reported in 2009), the highest levels of counterfeits were in Northern Ireland (3.6%) and the South East and London (2.97%), with the lowest being in Northwest England.^[33][34][35] Coin testing companies estimated in 2009 that the actual figure was about twice the Mint's estimate, suggesting that the Mint was underplaying the figures so as not to undermine confidence in the coin.^[36] It is illegal to pass on counterfeit currency knowingly; the official advice is to hand it in, with details of where received, to the police, who will retain it and investigate.^[37][38] One article suggested "given that fake coins are worthless, you will almost certainly be better off not even looking".^[36] The recipient has recourse against the supplier, as in any such case.

Counterfeits are put into circulation by dishonest people, then circulated inadvertently by others who are unaware; in many cases banks do not check, and circulate counterfeits. A 2011 BBC television programme withdrew 1,000 £1 coins from each of five major banks and found that each batch contained between 32 and 38 counterfeits; the Mint estimated that about 31 per 1,000 £1 coins were counterfeit.^[37] Some of the counterfeits were found by automated machinery, others could be detected only by expert visual inspection.

In July 2010, following speculation that the Royal Mint would have to consider replacing £1 coins with a new design because of the fakes, bookmakers Paddy Power offered odds of 6/4 (bet £4 to win £6, plus the £4 stake back; decimal odds of 2.5), that the £1 coin would be removed from circulation.^[34][39]

Real and fake pound coin, showing poor-quality edge inscription and milling

Some counterfeits are of poor quality, with obviously visible differences (less sharply defined, lacking intricate details, edge milling and markings visibly wrong). Many better counterfeits can be detected by comparing the orientation of the obverse and reverse—they always match in genuine coins, but very often not in counterfeits.^[37][38] The design on the reverse must be correct for the stamped year (e.g., a 1996 coin should have a Celtic cross).^[40] It is difficult to manufacture coins with properly-produced edges; the milling (grooves) may be incomplete or poor and the inscription (often "DECUS ET TUTAMEN") may be poorly produced and sometimes in the wrong typeface.^[37] A shiny coin with less wear than its date suggests is also suspect, although it may be a genuine coin that has rarely been used.^[38]

Counterfeit coins are made by different processes including casting, stamping, electrotyping, and copying with a pantograph or spark erosion.^[41] In a 2009 survey, 99% of fake £1 coins found in cash centres were made of a nickel-brass, of which three fifths contained some lead and a fifth were of a very similar alloy to that used by the Royal Mint. The remaining 1% were made of simple copper-zinc brass, or lead or tin, or both.^[42] Those made of lead or tin may have a gold-coloured coating; counterfeits made of acrylic plastic containing metal powder to increase weight have occasionally been found.^[41]

The final "round coins" were minted in December 2015; the replacement, a new 12-sided design, was introduced in 2017.^[43] The coin has a 12-edged shape, similar to the pre-decimal brass threepence coin; it has roughly the same size as the previous £1 coin, and is bi-metallic like the current £2 coin. The new design is intended to make counterfeiting more difficult, and also has an undisclosed hidden security feature called "iSIS" (Integrated Secure Identification Systems).^[19][44]

Current two-pound coins are made from two metals of different colour, and are much harder to counterfeit; counterfeited coins are often easily seen to be the wrong colour.

Other pound coins in circulation

Also legally circulating but not legal tender in the UK, are some £1 coins of British Crown Dependencies, Gibraltar and UK South Atlantic Overseas Territories, being of the same size and composition as their UK equivalent and mostly bearing the same portraits of the UK monarch (as with most other coins of the same territories).^[45][46]

Further reading

In an April 1993 The New Yorker article 'Real Britannia', Julian Barnes describes the meetings to choose the 1994–1997 reverse designs.^[47] This is reprinted in his book Letters from London as 'Britannia's New Bra Size'.

See also

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

References

External links

• Royal Mint – £1 coin
• Royal Mint - the new pound coin