Production of the new UK £1 coin has begun, chancellor George Osborne has announced.
Source: HM Treasury
The coins will roll off the production line at a rate of 4,000 coins a minute ahead of their entering circulation in March 2017.
The current £1 coin is being replaced for the first time in over 30 years because of its vulnerability to sophisticated counterfeiters.
Levels of counterfeit £1 coins have been as high as three per cent in the past few years, equating to around 45 million coins. The new, 12-sided coin will be the world’s most secure coin in circulation and will reduce the costs of counterfeits to businesses and the taxpayer.
“I am delighted that the Royal Mint is now producing the most secure circulating coin anywhere in the world,” said Osborne.
“With ground-breaking technology, developed in Wales, the new coin will help secure our economy and get rid of counterfeits. In a year’s time, the new coin, which will incorporate emblems from all four of our home nations, will line millions of pockets and purses around the UK.”
“The new coin will be going into circulation in March 2017, so that gives us a challenging but hugely exciting year to produce more than one billion brand new £1 coins,” said Adam Lawrence, chief executive of the Royal Mint.
“As an organisation we have been established for over one thousand years and we are proud to be recognised as the world’s best mint. In modernising the iconic £1 coin we are helping to redefine the world of coinage for the future.”
Jonathan Hart, chief executive of the Automatic Vending Association, said: “The AVA and the Royal Mint have been working together for a number of years to ensure implementation of the new £1 coin proceeds as smoothly as possible.
"While we can’t hide from the fact there is a sizeable piece of work for our members to undertake to ensure readiness, as an organisation we completely understand and support the rationale and the need for a new, secure, £1 coin in the UK.”
From March 2017, there will be a six-month period of co-circulation, where the current £1 and the new £1 coins will both be in circulation.
