UK not yet ready for new £1 coin

SWITCH FOUR DAYS AWAY: IN BID TO PREVENT FRAUD

Some supermarkets and automatic rail ticket machines can’t take it.

London

Britain’s old one-pound coin is being phased out completely on Sunday, but businesses complain they have been given too little time to switch to the new one and many are planning to defy the deadline.

About 1.2 billion old round coins have been withdrawn from circulation, but about 500 million are remaining with less than a week to go.

“The changeover period has been fairly short,” said Mike Cherry, national chairperson of the Federation of Small Businesses. “It would help if small firms knew they were allowed a short transition period to collect the old coins if they wish to, and are willing to bank them.”

Poundland, a chain of shops where almost all items cost £1, extended the period its customers would still be able to pay with the old coin until October 31.

The main banks, Barclays, Natwest, Lloyds and Santander and the Post Office have also announced they will continue to accept the round coin after October 15. The Royal Mint created the new coin in an attempt to combat fraud, with 3% of the old coins – or £45 million – deemed to be counterfeit.

The outgoing round coin, of which two billion were minted, first appeared in 1983 in an attempt to cut costs by replacing the one-pound note.

The new coin, of which 1.5 billion copies have been made, is “the safest in the world”, said Kevin Clancy, director of the Royal Mint Museum.

Security features on the new coin include 12 sides, a bi-metallic composition, a holograph and tiny lettering called microtext around part of the design.

Two different coloured metal alloys, based on nickel and copper, also make it easier to distinguish between fakes and genuine coins.

The coin will also have a new design on its tail side, created by 15-year-old David Pearce, who won a competition organised by the Treasury.

His drawing depicts a rose, a leek, a thistle and a clover – the symbols of the four nations of the United Kingdom – surrounded by a royal crown.

On the opposite side is a new portrait of Elizabeth II, the fifth to decorate a British coin.

The new coin is supposed to fully replace the old one on October 15. Supermarkets Tesco and Sainsbury’s have not yet adapted their trolleys to take the new coin, according to the Daily Telegraph. Rail travellers will also face problems, with automatic ticket machines of some companies not able to take new coins. –

Picture: EPA Pigeons wait to be fed by residents at Pigeon Square in downtown Joburg. The square was created to be a home for hundreds of pigeons and three large metal statues of pigeons were built for it.