UK £1 Coins: Every Round Pound and the 12-Sided Pound

Round or 12-sided? Start there

Look at the shape. A round, thick, gold-colored coin is the old pound. You can't spend it any more, but a few dates are worth keeping. A 12-sided coin with a silver-colored center is the current pound, first issued in 2017 and still legal tender.

On a round pound the reverse and the edge tell you almost everything. Each design was used in particular years and each came with its own edge inscription, so the picture, the date and the edge should always agree. Most were made by the tens of millions. The ones to keep are the low-mintage issues of 2008 to 2014, led by the 2011 Edinburgh with 935,000 made, followed by the 2011 Cardiff, the 2010 London, the 2008 Royal Arms and the floral coins.

Round pounds released into circulation

Collector-only pounds and the 12-sided designs

The round pound, 1983 to 2016

The round pound arrived in 1983 to replace the £1 note. It was a thick nickel-brass coin with a lettered edge. The first design, the ornamental Royal Arms, was struck 443,053,510 times. After that the Royal Mint rotated the reverse through designs for each nation of the United Kingdom, coming back to a UK-wide design every five years until 2003.

• 1983, 1993, 1998 and 2003: the ornamental Royal Arms (the 1998 coin was made for sets only)
• 1984 to 1987, repeated 1989 to 1992: a thistle for Scotland, a leek for Wales, a flax plant for Northern Ireland and an oak tree for England
• 1988: a crowned shield of the Royal Arms
• 1994 to 1997, repeated 1999 to 2002: a lion rampant, a Welsh dragon, a Celtic cross with torc and three lions (the 1999 coin was made for sets only)
• 2004 to 2007: four bridges, the Forth, the Menai, the Egyptian Arch and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge
• 2008 to 2016: Matthew Dent's Shield of the Royal Arms
• 2010 and 2011: four capital cities; 2013 and 2014: four floral emblems
• 2016: the Last Round Pound with four heraldic beasts, for collectors only

Edge inscriptions tell you the design

Most round pounds carry a Latin or Welsh phrase on the edge. DECUS ET TUTAMEN, meaning an ornament and a safeguard, appears on the UK-wide, English and Northern Irish designs. Scottish designs use NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT, roughly no one provokes me with impunity. Welsh ones use PLEIDIOL WYF I'M GWLAD, true am I to my country, a line from the Welsh national anthem.

Two series break the pattern. The 2004 to 2007 bridges have only an incuse pattern of bridges and pathways. The 2010 and 2011 capital cities use each city's motto: DOMINE DIRIGE NOS for London, PRO TANTO QUID RETRIBUAMUS for Belfast, Y DDRAIG GOCH DDYRY CYCHWYN for Cardiff and NISI DOMINUS FRUSTRA for Edinburgh.

Why the round pound was withdrawn

Forgery. Toward the end of its life the Royal Mint estimated that about one in thirty round pounds in circulation was fake. The answer was a new coin packed with security features. Both circulated side by side for a few months, then the round pound ceased to be legal tender on 15 October 2017.

Some banks may still accept them as a deposit into your own account, but a scarce date is better kept or sold to a collector.

The 12-sided pound from 2017

The current £1 entered circulation on 28 March 2017. It's made of two metals, a gold-colored outer ring around a silver-colored center. Its 12 sides make it easy to recognize by touch. Security features include a latent image that switches between a £ symbol and the number 1 as you tilt the coin, plus tiny lettering on both sides.

The Nations of the Crown reverse, an English rose, Welsh leek, Scottish thistle and Northern Irish shamrock emerging from a crown, was designed by David Pearce, a teenager who won a public competition. It ran from 2016, with coins struck ahead of the launch, to 2022. The biggest year was 2017 with 749,616,200; the smallest was 2022 with 7,735,000. Coins with King Charles III carry a new reverse of bees, with 10,030,000 dated 2023 and 9,010,000 dated 2025.

Frequently asked questions