If you have been on vacation to the UK in the past few years, it’s quite likely you still have some £1 gold-colored coins. These are being replaced with a high security, bi-metal 12 sided coin. Importantly the old “round pounds” will cease to be legal tender on October 15. For a limited period after then, banks in the UK might still exchange them but this will be a pain for individuals. It is quite likely that they will only accept them to deposit into a bank account. The “last resort” will be to have them exhanged by the Bank of England — either in person in London or by post.
Unless you are a coin collector or wish to keep them as souvenirs, make sure you decide what to do with them in the next month. Many charities for example take foreign coins and get good rates for exchanging them. With charities in desperate need for cash to cope with Harvey, this might be a good time to look up if local ones do this.
Obviously if you have friends or relatives coming to Britain, pass the £1 coins on to them with the advice to spend them before the deadline. Also, as the deadline approaches, they should be careful about receiving them in change.
The new coins are shown above. They have a “silver” center section and a “gold” colored edge which carries the writing. The most obvious security feature is the little area at the edge below the Queen’s head. This is a “hologram” that shows the pound sign (£) when the light hits it correctly. The four national plants (rose for England, leek for Wales, thistle for Scotland and shamrock for Northern Ireland) in a crown design for the obverse is the only one currently in circulation. The 12 sides are alternately plain and grooved.
The old £1 coins came in a wide variety of “tails” designs but were a solid “gold” color. An original nickname was a “Maggie” after Margaret Thatcher because they were considered cheap, brassy and pretending to be a sovereign (also the name of a British gold coin with a nominal face value of a pound). The grooved edge was also usually inscribed. The “standard” design has “Decus et tutamen” Latin for “an ornament and protection” but there are other inscriptions or designs.
The £1 coin now matches the bi-metal arrangement of the £2 coin with the silver center and gold edge. The £2 will remain circular and this change does not affect them. The denomination is used for the standard comemmorative coins to mark significant anniversaries (e.g. the 900th anniversary of Magna Carta or 150 years of the London Underground) and events like the 2012 Olympics. The “definitive” has a series of rings representing different ages of technology with the edge inscription “Standing on the shoulders of giants”. This quote from Isaac Newton is also a bit of an “in joke” for the Bank of England. For internal purposes, they issue A5 size £1 million notes called “giants” — they also use A4 size £100 million “Titans”.
This year also saw the old paper Bank of England £5 notes with Elizabeth Fry on the back replaced by polymer (plastic) ones bearing the image of Winston Churchill. The old “Elizabeth Fry” £5 notes will have to be exchanged at the Bank. On September 14, a new polymer £10 note will be issued. This will bear the image of Jane Austin (well a picture based on a sketch that might be the only portrait of the author!). No details of when the existing paper “Charles Darwin” £10 notes will be withdrawn have yet been given.
I hope these details will enable you to decide what to do if you have any of this British currency which has or will shortly cease to be legal tender.