145 million old £1 coins still missing, says Royal Mint
Written by News on 28/07/2019
A total of 145 million old £1 coins are still in circulation even though they cannot be spent, the Royal Mint says.
The round coin was replaced by the 12-sided version in October 2017 – the new coins are designed to make them difficult to counterfeit.
One in 30 of the older version was estimated to be fake, according to the Royal Mint.
There were about 1.7 billion round £1 coins in circulation at the start of the six-month transition period in March 2017.
A Royal Mint official said: “Our communications campaign encouraged the return of old £1 coins when legal tender was removed.
“The small proportion of coins not returned can continue to be deposited into a customer’s account at most high street banks in the UK.
“We expect there to be some returns for a number of years to come as people find these coins.”
The round £1 coin, first issued in 1983, was one of the oldest British coins in circulation.
The Royal Mint says the new coin is the most secure in the world and features various safeguards against counterfeiting, including a hologram and micro-sized lettering inside both rims.
It can also be detected when electronically scanned by coin-counting and payment machines.
(c) Sky News 2019: 145 million old £1 coins still missing, says Royal Mint
