12-Edged £1 Coin

Having a read on http://www.royalmint.com/aboutus/ne...1-pound-coin it says the new coin will use technology currently used in banknotes
Erm.... :-/

Interesting times ahead I suppose....

But you have to worry whether the percentage of fakes will skyrocket over the next couple of years.

Interesting that it shows 2014 on the edge .... can't imagine they will go with the date on the edge when they actually go into circulation and certainly not in Roman numerals. Wonder if Osborne is allowed keep that pattern piece and if it will ever become part of someone's collection - unlikely I'm sure, bet the RM took it right back off him after the photo-op lol.

Looks far nicer than the current coin imo, just hope the design chosen for the reverse is not what Chas would refer to as a carbuncle.

Norm

Technology

" The Royal Mint has produced a prototype for a replacement £1 coin which utilises multiple layers of cutting edge technology and would allow the United Kingdom to rapidly reduce the rate of counterfeit coins entering general circulation..."

If you put that together with all the other remarks on iSIS, that suggests it is one or more layers of foil embedded in the middles. The simplest way this could aid fake detection would be to use an electrically resistive foil, causing the electrical resistance measured between the centres of each face to differ markedly from that of a solid metal coin, which it would still mimic from edge to edge.

That would be both relatively simple and error-resistant to manufacture, and likewise in terms of forming a test applied by cash machines.

Presumably other higher value coins will gain iSIS, since a polygonal bimetallic coin with edge engraving will displace any forgers onto the simpler 50p, £2 as well as Euro coins.

Existing fakes

Personally I doubt the abolition of the present £1 will make it open season for fakers in the meantime. Reading the accounts of various recent busts, we have seen cash handlers apparently getting wise to suspicious incidences and thorough police operations to follow this up to both criminals and inventory, and no reason to think either will wane.

What we will see is, as the 2017/2018 withdrawal deadline approaches, many people suddenly becoming remarkably proficient at spotting and refusing fakes who paid little attention before!

Investment

The BBC reported that 2 million fakes are being withdrawn every year. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26632863

How does that cost-justify cash machine modifications that may total around £100 million http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ritain.html) PLUS the cost of manufacturing and exchanging 15 billion new £1 coins?

I dare say it's not as bad for the taxpayer as Help-to-Buy.

In the same article the British Parking Association is cited as saying "one benefit of the change will be to stop around 40million counterfeit coins going in to parking machines each year, which would offset the cost."

There cannot be 40 million counterfeits being withdrawn by parking operators each year, that would mean new fakes having to replace them and enter circulation at a similar rate to genuine new £1 coins!

Maybe the Treasury is worried about the 'unseen' number of fakes being withdrawn each year by collectors who 'should' be withdrawing *their* collectable coin instead!

I suppose none of it is the Treasury's baby, except that they are having to pay for law enforcement to catch the crooks. They will however as you say benefit from the balance of lustrous metals withdrawn, also handsomely from all the existing pound coins that will be retained for posterity by less meticulous collectors.

What is the cost of fake £1 coins undermining confidence in our currency as a whole? Is it undermining it yet? The incidence has hovered at around 3% since 2010; it is probably now falling as several of us on this forum have noticed, as the effect of major recent fake busts kicks in i.e. any middlemen with stock dispose of it.

Is faking 50ps so laughable given the number of different £1 faking operations that have gone on? Also there is the slightly harder task of embedding security implants smoothly in real, mono-metallic 50ps such that they don't emerge with wear. This isn't likely to become easier in a nickel-plated version (if a nickel-plated 50p is phased in also).

@Moralclimate yes I know the 3d was smaller but a least the feel will be different