1,300 years of spending a penny

The penny has been around since the 8th century, but the current decimal coins only came into circulation in 1971.

Before 1992, copper coins were made from 97 per cent copper. Now they are minted in copper-plated steel.

Coppers are not legal tender if used in batches worth more than 20p – if you try to use them to pay 21p or more in a single transaction, you break the 1971 Coinage Act.

There are 11.4 billion 1p coins and 6.7 billion 2p pieces in circulation.

Coppers make up 60 per cent of all coins in circulation.

A 2p coin weighs 3.56g – twice as much as a penny.

The number of 1p and 2p coins minted in the UK each year has more than halved since 2015.

Australia, Canada and Switzerland removed their lowest denomination coins after inflation ate into their value.

The Royal Mint has to produce and issue more than 500 million 1p and 2p coins a year to replace those falling out of circulation.

60 per cent of coppers are used only once before never being used again.

In one in 12 of cases, the coins are thrown in the bin.

Rare 1983 2p coins that say ‘new pence’ rather than ‘two pence’ have fetched more than £500 at auction.