The Vancouver Numismatic Society
The one pound coin's ups and downs by Peter N. Moogk
Britain's one pound coin (= 100 pence) replaced the paper banknote in April 1983. The pound's reduced purchasing power no longer justified a banknote, just as Canada abandoned the one and two dollar banknotes in favour of coins of the same values. The first pound coin was a round, yellow coin made of nickel and brass. The rim had the Latin text "an ornament and a safeguard." The principal design had the royal coat of arms and, on the obverse, the queen's head. Regional variants were later struck for Wales, Scotland and Ulster, with reverses that reflected these parts of the UK. A bimetallic two pound coin was introduced in 1994. The trouble with the round, one pound coin was that it was easily counterfeited and false coins were produced in continental Europe. It is estimated that thirty million of these counterfeit coins entered circulation in Britain. As a counter-measure, the Royal Mint issued a re-designed, bimetallic one pound coin in March 2017. Coins of the old design were withdrawn and then demonetized.
The new coin had an inner ring of a nickel-plated alloy and an outer rim of nickel and brass. The twelve-sided rim was alternately smooth and milled. The central design had a rose [for England], leek [for Wales], shamrock [for Northern Ireland], and thistle [for Scotland] encircled by a coronet. Notice the micro dates "2017" close to the rim. As Canadians have discovered, bimetallic coins are harder to counterfeit, but cheaters will not be deterred. Counterfeit, Canadian bimetallic "twoonies" have been produced in mainland China. Thus far, the United Kingdom has only varied the coin's design. The battle between lawful coins and phonies goes on and we may expect to hear about counterfeit pound coins copying the new features.