2017 Will Herald A New Quid on the Block

LONDON — The countdown to a historic new £1 coin officially began today, with UK Chief Secretary David Gauke revealing it will enter circulation on 28 March 2017.

Gauke stressed: “if you have a round one pound coin sitting at home or in your wallet, you need to spend it or return it to your bank before 15 October.”

In a statement today, HM Treasury and Royal Mint said this is the first time the £1 coin has been introduced in over 30 years.

Around £1.3 billion worth of coins are stored in savings jars across the country, and the current £1 coin accounts for almost a third of these. Therefore it is important that all round £1 coins are returned before 15 October 2017 when they lose their legal tender status.

The new 12-sided £1 will be the most secure coin in the world with several new security features – including a hologram – to prevent counterfeits, which cost taxpayers and businesses millions every year.

Some interesting little-known facts about the pound coin include:

• the Royal Mint has produced over 2.2 billion round pound coins since 1983 – that’s the same weight as nearly 6,000 elephants
• 25 different designs have appeared on the current pound coin from dragons to trees
• the Royal Mint will make over 1.5 billion of the new £1 coins
• if you put these coins side by side, there would be enough coins to go from the UK to New Zealand and back
• the new £1 coin is based on the design of the old 12-sided three-penny bit, a popular British coin which went out of circulation in 1971
• it is being made at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant, Wales, at a rate of up to 2,000 each minute
• this equates to more than 30 coins every single second and nearly 3 million new £1 coins per day
• some of the round £1 coins returned by the public will be melted down and reused to make the new £1 coin
• the oldest British coins in the Royal Mint’s collection dates back over 2,000 years
• some coins produced by the Royal Mint are tested every year to ensure they meet the correct specifications at the ‘Trial of the Pyx’, a judicial ceremony which dates back to the twelfth century
• 2017 will be the first time the new £1 coin goes to trial
• the Chancellor is the UK’s official “Master of the Mint” – a title previously held by Isaac Newton