Royal Mint unveils new £1 coin

The Royal Mint will be introducing a new £1 in 2017, in an attempt to dramatically reduce the high rate of coin counterfeiting.

The £1 coin, which was introduced thirty years ago in order to take the place of the one pound note, has been under great concern in recent years as it is believed that 3% of existing £1 coins are currently fake.

This new 12-sided design was tweeted by Chancellor George Osborne on the morning of his fifth Budget. The Chancellor wrote: “Today I will deliver a Budget for a resilient economy – starting with a resilient pound coin.”

With an increase in advanced counterfeiting technologies, it is estimated that of the 1.5 billion £1 coins in circulation, up to two million counterfeit ones are removed ever year. The new coin will be of a similar size but will consist of two colours to help ensure authentication at every point.

This announcement comes just a few months after the Bank of England unveiled new “polymer” banknotes, which are to be introduced in 2016. A spokesman for the Bank of England said that these two decisions “will enhance the security and integrity of the currency.”

Have you ever had any issues with counterfeit coins? Is this new coin going to make a difference? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.