COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

The new 12-sided £1 coin will enter circulation on 28 March, the government has said.



The round £1 will be legal tender alongside the new, more-secure coin until 15 October.

The public are being urged to use their current £1 coins or bank them before they lose their legal tender status.

The government estimates around a third of the £1.3 billion worth of coins stored in piggy banks or saving jars around the UK are the current £1 style.

Some of those returned by the public will be melted down and used to make the 12-sided version.

The new style was announced in the 2014 budget and has been billed by the Royal Mint as "the most secure coin in the world".

Its introduction will come as a new set of coin designs are also brought into circulation, celebrating the achievements of Jane Austen and Sir Isaac Newton.

The Royal Mint said the new designs have a "strong pioneering theme" and will start appearing this spring.

A Jane Austen £2 coin will celebrate the author 200 years after her death, while another £2 version will remember the Royal Flying Corps.

A 50p coin will mark the achievements of mathematician Sir Isaac Newton, a one-time Master of the Royal Mint.

Dr Kevin Clancy, director of the Royal Mint Museum, said: "This is a particularly significant year in Royal Mint history as we welcome in the new 12-sided £1 coin, with its innovative security features.

"This year we also mark the achievements of Jane Austen, Sir Isaac Newton and the Royal Flying Corps - all pioneers in their own field."

Drivers warned to expect car park chaos because payment machines will not accept the coin

Around a quarter of Britain’s 100,000 pay and display machines will not have been modified to accept the new 12-sided £1 by the time it enters circulation on March 28, it is claimed.

The British Parking Association told the Daily Telegraph that a lengthy backlog meant many machines will not be updated until May or June. They added that those in rural areas were at a greater risk of not being ready.

Although the current £1 will not be phased out until October, the Royal Mint has already started withdrawing them.

Dave Smith, a spokesman at the British Parking Association, said some councils were considering making parking machines cashless instead, because introducing tap-and-go technology may be cheaper than altering the shape of coin slots.

Any machines which are not updated by the end of March will be required to carry signs stating they do not accept the new coins.

Customers hoping to buy drinks or snacks from vending machines could also run into problems from March.

It is understood that around 40 per cent of the UK’s 500,000 machines will not be updated in time, with those in offices and gyms, which are maintained by private companies rather than big suppliers, likely to be slowest to adapt to the change.

Jonathan Hart, chief executive of the Automatic Vending Association said: ‘It’s just a question of getting round to it.

‘Machines run by private companies are likely to be slower to adapt as they might need to get permission to do the modification, which is more time consuming.’

The warning comes after a survey by Mastercard suggested 87 per cent of the population was unaware of an October 15 deadline to spend the old £1 coin and that Britons could lose £1.1billion overall by not spending them in time.

Melisandre wrote:Yep sure is Rebbonk and what about the shopping trollies.

New super-secure £1 coins 'losing their middle part'



The new £1 coin was supposed to be the most secure in the world, but after less than a month some are apparently losing their middle part.

The 12-sided coin, which features a gold-coloured outer ring and a silver-coloured centre, was rolled out in March.

But problems are already being reported, such as warped coins, gaps between the metal parts, cracks and blemishes.

Some have entirely lost their silver centre, which features the Queen's head, according to the Sun.

Hopeful punters are even auctioning them online as a collector's item.

One shopper who was handed a misshapen coin with a gap between its outer ring and centre core said she was baffled at how it slipped through.

"I just got confused at how it got out really. Even if it is a fake it's meant to be an unfakeable pound coin," Tamzin Nye, 18, told the Sun.

The Royal Mint says a few defective coins were always likely to slip past its quality control due to the sheer volume being made.