The Great One Pound Coin Race Starts Today – just 250 days to own a complete £1 Coin Collection

7 February 2017

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The British public has just 250 days to collect all 24 Round £1 Coin Designs. 

They’ve been a part of our lives for 33 years but the Round Pound Coin will be withdrawn from circulation forever on the 15th October this year.

Starting from today, we’re encouraging everyone across the UK, to join the biggest race of its kind ever held – The Great One Pound Coin Race.

33 Years of Round £1 Coins.  24 Designs.  Gone in 250 days.

The first £1 coin entered circulation right back in 1983 and featured the Royal Coat of Arms as its design.  It was quickly followed the next year with a Scottish thistle design, followed by the Welsh leek, Northern Irish flax and the English oak in subsequent years.

In total 24 different designs have entered circulation with five different series representing the component countries of the UK.  The remaining four designs have all been variations on the theme of the Royal Coat of Arms.  A final, twenty-fifth Round Pound Coin was issued by The Royal Mint in 2016 but it never entered general circulation.

Scarce £1 Coins still available for face value in your change

Of course some £1 coins are much rarer than others.  It’s partly because mintages of the different designs vary vastly, from less than 1 million coins to over 300 million.  But that’s only part of the story.  Older issues are also often more difficult to find, especially in good condition.

The 3 lowest mintage £1 coins come from a series of UK Capital Cities issued in 2010/11

The three lowest mintage £1 coins in circulation come from a series of UK Capital City coins issued in 2010/11, with Edinburgh being the rarest with a mintage of 935,000 coins – just 0.04% of all the £1 coins ever struck.

But it’s still possible to find even these rare coins in your change along with all of the other 21 circulation £1 coins.  But only for the next 250 days.

Once the 15 October has passed, collectors will have little chance of building a complete collection of £1 Coins at anything like their face value. 

Click here to download the complete list of £1 Coins to collect

Additional Information

A 25th and last round £1 coin was issued in 2016 but was only made available to collectors, never entering general circulation.

The new 12-sided £1 coin enters circulation on 28 March 2017 and will circulate alongside the round £1 coin until 15 October 2017.  For more information: https://www.thenewpoundcoin.com/

To join the Great Pound Coin Race visit www.changechecker.org/coinrace