Small change ... but new 12-sided £1 coin to cost firms £22m

BY MARK MCLAUGHLIN

THERE has been much speculation recently about whether Scotland’s future currency will be the euro or the groat – but while it remains part of the UK, the answer from Tuesday will be “the dodecagon”.

The new 12-sided £1 coin enters circulation on March 28, and while businesses have been preparing for it since 2014, many are counting the cost of the transition.

It is believed that the last redesign of the five pence and 10 pence coins cost British businesses around £80 million, according to a Treasury Economic Impact Assessment.

A straw poll of British Retail Consortium (BRC) members, who account for around 22% of UK retail turnover, found the redesign has cost them £4.8m.

“If you crudely extrapolate that across the industry then that is £22m in preparing for the launch of the new pound coin,” said BRC policy adviser Andrew Cregan. That’s not taking into account the new £5 note that came into play last year, and the new £10 note coming in next year, so it’s £22m just on the new £1 coin alone.”

The new coin is designed to crack down on counterfeiting, with around three per cent of the 1.5 billion £1 coins in circulation thought to be fakes. That amounts to around £45m of counter- feit cash doing the rounds, so retailers could ultimately end up quids in when it is taken out of circulation in October 2017.

“A retailer wouldn’t knowingly take a fake £1 coin, but if they do they take the hit,” said Cregan.

“Obviously there’s a significant cost to industry adapting machines andnd training staff with regards to thee new coins coming into circulation.

“But we have been working with the Royal Mint and the Treasury since 2014 to ensure that the process takes place as smoothly as possible, and there’s a high degree of readiness on our ur part.” The new £1 coin enters circulation on March 28