1986 Flax Plant £1 Coin
The 1986 Flax Plant £1 is a circulating £1 coin with 10.4 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 1986
- Circulation mintage
- 10,409,501
- Value band
- Face value
- Composition
- Nickel-brass (70% copper, 24.5% zinc, 5.5% nickel)
Original illustration of the coin's shape and metal. Tap to flip. Not a picture of the actual design.
Face value · Small premium · Collector premium · Significant rarity. We use bands because prices change daily.
What is a 1986 Flax Plant £1 worth?
With 10.4 million made, the 1986 Flax Plant £1 is common. It has no collector value beyond the pound itself. Since 15 October 2017 the round pound can no longer be spent in shops. Only uncirculated coins from sets, genuine errors and the scarce dates bring more.
What would make yours worth more:
- Uncirculated condition with crisp edge lettering
- Original Royal Mint pack or set
- A genuine mint error confirmed by an expert
For market prices, look at recent sold results for the same coin in the same condition, not asking prices.
Quick answers
- Is the 1986 Flax Plant £1 rare?
- No. 10.4 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 1986 Flax Plant £1 coins were made?
- 10,409,501 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 1986 Flax Plant £1 made of?
- Nickel-brass (70% copper, 24.5% zinc, 5.5% nickel). It weighs 9.5 g and measures 22.5 mm.
- Is the 1986 Flax Plant £1 still legal tender?
- No. The round pound stopped being legal tender on 15 October 2017. It can no longer be spent in shops; collectors still want the scarce dates.
Why the 1986 Flax Plant £1 was made
Northern Ireland completed the third step of the national rotation in 1986. Leslie Durbin's design shows a flax plant, a nod to the linen industry that made the region famous for well over a century. Flax was grown in the fields of Ulster and spun and woven in its mills. Belfast linen was traded around the world. Like the Scottish and Welsh pounds before it, the coin sets the plant inside a royal diadem so the four national designs read as a family.
What makes 1986 stand out is the number struck. Only 10,409,501 went into circulation, a sharp drop from the hundreds of millions made in the first three years. Just a year earlier the figure had been more than 228 million. Among the round pounds from 1983 to 2007 only the 1988 Shield had a smaller circulation run. The Flax Plant returned in 1991 with a much larger mintage, so the 1986 date is the one collectors single out. The coin carries Raphael Maklouf's portrait and the standard 22.5 mm, 9.5 g nickel-brass format.
How to recognize it
On the reverse a flax plant with slender stems grows through a royal diadem, above the words ONE POUND. The Maklouf portrait is on the obverse. Northern Ireland did not get its own edge inscription, so the edge carries DECUS ET TUTAMEN, the Latin "an ornament and a safeguard" also used on United Kingdom and English designs. The 1986 and 1991 coins share every design element, so the date is the only way to tell them apart. Check it carefully, because a 1991 coin is several times more common. On a worn coin the delicate tips of the stems are the first details to soften, so a coin that still shows them clearly has seen little use.
The other side carries Raphael Maklouf's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used from 1985 to 1997.
1986 Flax Plant £1 by the numbers
By the numbers, the 1986 Flax Plant £1 ranks 11th lowest of 41 circulating £1 coins with a published mintage. The next scarcer is the 1988 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 (7.12 million); the next more common is the 2013 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 (13.1 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1983 Royal Arms £1 with 443.1 million, about 43 times as many. The scarcest is the 2011 Edinburgh £1 with 935,000, 11 times fewer than this one.
It was the only circulating commemorative £1 coin dated 1986.
What to check on your 1986 Flax Plant £1
- Read the edge. It should say DECUS ET TUTAMEN; an edge that doesn't match the design is the quickest sign of a fake.
- Turn the coin over on its vertical axis: on a genuine pound the design side is the same way up as the portrait. A tilted or upside-down reverse points to a copy.
- Weigh it: a genuine round pound weighs 9.5 g. Fakes are often light, soft in detail or a slightly different color.
- Remember that round pounds stopped being legal tender on 15 October 2017, so a common one has no use in shops.
Just over 10.4 million is a modest figure for a pound, about a quarter of the 1991 run. Even so, plenty still turn up in old coin jars and a worn 1986 Flax is close to face value. The interest is in well-preserved coins; an unworn example with sharp, distinct stems draws a small premium. A scarcer date always deserves a closer look for fakes. Fakes often show mushy detail on the plant, a slightly wrong color or edge lettering that is shallow or poorly spaced.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 1 pound |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 1986 |
| Circulation mintage | 10,409,501 |
| Composition | Nickel-brass (70% copper, 24.5% zinc, 5.5% nickel) |
| Weight | 9.5 g |
| Diameter | 22.5 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Lettered: DECUS ET TUTAMEN |
| Portrait | Maklouf |
Frequently asked questions
Is the 1986 Flax Plant pound rare?
It is scarcer than most round pounds, with 10,409,501 struck for circulation. Only the 1988 Shield had fewer. That is still millions of coins, so worn examples are common. Unworn coins are the ones that attract collector interest.
Why is there a flax plant on a pound coin?
The flax plant represents Northern Ireland. Flax supplied the region's famous linen industry, which made Ulster linen known worldwide. It was the Northern Ireland design in the first round of national pounds and appeared on coins dated 1986 and 1991.
Mintage figures: One pound (British coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.