Out today, new £1 that buys lot less than original did

A SMART pound coin is launched today – but its power has taken a battering since the original’s launch 34 years ago.

In a typical shopping basket what you could have picked up with the original £1 coin, introduced in 1983, would now cost you £3.10p.

The “round pound” is being replaced by a 12-sided coin based on the old threepenny bit after the current design became too easy to counterfeit.

About one in every 30 £1 coins in circulation in recent years has been fake.

The new coin has been described as the hardest in the world to copy and boasts high-tech features, including a hologram.

But people wanting to use a vending machine or parking meter may be frustrated after it emerged some will not accept the new coin.

The Automatic Vending Association estimates that 15 per cent of machines are not ready.

And a spokesman for the British Parking Association said that while most parking machines have been converted, some older ones still need replacing.

The two £1 coins will co-exist until the round pound ceases to be legal tender on October 15.

New analysis from Prudential highlights the impact of inflation on retirement planning and income since the pound coin’s introduction.

The cost of a sliced white loaf has increased from 38p to £1 and 2.2lb of cheddar cheese from £2.55 to £7.19.

Savers will need to put more than three times as much money aside to achieve the same levels of spending power that their counterparts had back in 1983, said Vince Smith-Hughes, a retirement expert at Prudential.

The new coins have been made at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant, south Wales, at a rate of three million per day.

They have a gold-coloured outer ring and a silver-coloured inner ring.

People have been urged to return the old pounds before the October deadline.

Roughly £1.3billion of coins are stored in savings jars across the country and the £1 coin is thought to account for nearly a third of these.