British coin One Pound
| United Kingdom | |
| Value | 1 pound sterling |
|---|---|
| Mass | (Round) 9.5 g (12-sided) 8.75 g |
| Diameter | (Round) 22.5 mm (12-sided) 23.03-23.43 mm |
| Thickness | (Round) 3.15 mm (12-sided) 2.8 mm |
| Edge | (Round) Milled, with incuse lettering (12-sided) Alternately milled and plain |
| Composition | (Round) Nickel-brass (70% Cu, 24.5% Zn, and 5.5% Ni) (12-sided, outer ring) Nickel-brass (76% Cu, 20% Zn, and 4% Ni) (12-sided, inner circle) Nickel-plated alloy |
| Obverse | |
 
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|
| Design | Queen Elizabeth II |
| Designer | Jody Clark |
| Design date | 2015 |
| Reverse | |
 
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| Design | The shield of the Royal Coat of Arms (round) Rose, leek, thistle, and shamrock encircled by a coronet (12-sided) |
| Designer |
Matthew Dent (round) David Pearce (12-sided) |
| Design date | 2008 (round) 2016 (12-sided) |
The British one pound (£1) coin is a denomination of the pound sterling. Its obverse bears the Latin engraving D G REG “Dei Gratia Regina” meaning, “By the grace of God, Queen” and F D meaning ”Fidei defensor" 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, with the latest design by Jody Clark being introduced in 2015. The design on the reverse side of the new 2017 coin features four emblems to represent each of the nations of the United Kingdom – the English rose, the leek for Wales, the Scottish thistle, and the shamrock for Northern Ireland – emerging from a single stem within a crown.
The £1 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.
Since 28 March 2017, two versions of the one pound coin have been in circulation – the original round design and a new dodecagonal (12-sided) design. As of March 2014 there were an estimated 1,553 million round £1 coins in circulation, of which the Royal Mint estimated in 2014 that 3.04% (i.e. about 47 million) were counterfeit. In an effort to counter this, the Royal Mint introduced the new 12-sided coin, which is bimetallic like the current £2 coin, and features an undisclosed hidden security feature called 'iSIS' (Integrated Secure Identification Systems). The round pound will remain in circulation until October 2017.
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