One Pound Coins
History of the British One Pound Coin
The main currency of the UK, the GBP £1 coin replaced the previous £1 banknote in April 1983.
The British one pound (£1) coin is a denomination of the pound sterling. The Obverse bears the Latin engraving “Dei Gratia Regina” meaning, “By the grace of God, Queen” and FD meaning “Defender of the Faith.”
It has featured the profile of Queen Elizabeth II since the coin’s introduction on 21 April 1983. Four different portraits of the Queen have been used before Charles III came to the throne:
- 1983-1984, Elizabeth II by Arnold Machin
- 1985-1997, Elizabeth II by Raphael Maklouf
- 1998-2015, Elizabeth II by Ian Rank-Broadley
- 2015-2023, Elizabeth II by Jody Clark
- 2023 to date, Charles III by Martin Jennings
In addition to the standard reverse one or two new designs may be minted each year.
The coin replaced the Bank of England £1 note, which ceased to be issued at the end of 1984 and was removed from circulation on 11 March 1988, though still redeemable at the Bank’s offices, like all English banknotes. One-pound notes continue to be issued in Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, and by the Royal Bank of Scotland, but the pound coin is much more widely used.
The round coin is made in Nickel-brass (70% Cu, 24.5% Zn, and 5.5% Ni). Most years there has been a variant as silver, piedfort silver, gold and sometimes platinum.
At 31 March 2016 it was estimated that there were 1,671,328,000 pound coins in circulation. The Royal Mint estimated in 2014 that 3.04% (about 47 million) were counterfeit and mainly because of this it was decided to change the design. Note that even some of the uncirculated coins have been counterfeited so this is still a problem for collectors.
Most one pound coins have an edge inscription, although sometimes this has been replaced with incuse patterns. The common inscriptions are:
Edge Inscription | Translation/etymology |
DECUS ET TUTAMEN | ‘An ornament and a safeguard’ from Virgil’s Aeneid |
NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT | ‘No one provokes me with impunity’. The Motto of the Order of the Thistle |
PLEIDIOL WYF I’M GWLAD | ‘True am I to my country’ from the Welsh National Anthem |
PRO TANTO QUID RETRIBUAMUS | ‘What shall we give in return for so much.’ The Motto of Belfast |
DOMINE DIRIGE NOS | ‘Lord direct us.’ The Motto of London |
Y DDRAIG GOCH DDYRY CYCHWYN | ‘The Red Dragon shall lead’ The Motto of Cardiff |
NISI DOMINUS FRUSTRA | ‘It is vain without the Lord’ The Motto of Edinburgh |
Production
The final ’round’ coins were minted in December 2015. Their replacement, a new 12-sided design, was introduced from 28 March 2017 onwards. It is of a similar 12-sided shape to the pre-decimal brass threepence coin, is roughly the same size as the round £1 coin and is bimetallic like the current £2 coin. The new design was intended to make counterfeiting more difficult, via an undisclosed hidden security feature, called ‘iSIS’ (Integrated Secure Identification Systems).
To reach the initial production of 1.5 billion pound coins to replace the exsiting coins the Royal Mint used ten presses 24×7 making 140,000 coins per hour. It takes a long time to restock the entire country and that’s why the new coins were dated 2016 and 2017 despite not being legal tender until March 2017.