1987 Oak Tree £1 Coin
The 1987 Oak Tree £1 is a circulating £1 coin with 39.3 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 1987
- Circulation mintage
- 39,298,502
- 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 1987 Oak Tree £1 worth?
With 39.3 million made, the 1987 Oak Tree £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 1987 Oak Tree £1 rare?
- No. 39.3 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 1987 Oak Tree £1 coins were made?
- 39,298,502 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 1987 Oak Tree £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 1987 Oak Tree £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 1987 Oak Tree £1 was made
England closed the first cycle of national pounds in 1987 with an oak tree. The oak has long been linked with England, from the Royal Oak that hid Charles II after the Battle of Worcester to the timber that built its wooden navy. Leslie Durbin set the tree inside a royal diadem, matching the thistle, leek and flax designs that came before it. With this coin the full set of four nations plus the royal arms was in place, a pattern that shaped round pound designs for the next two decades.
The 1987 run was 39,298,502 coins for circulation. That sits in the middle of the pack: far fewer than the early dates but nearly four times the 1986 Flax Plant. The Oak Tree came back in 1992 with a slightly smaller mintage, so the two dates are roughly equal in how often you might meet them. The coin carries Raphael Maklouf's portrait. Like every round pound it measured 22.5 mm and weighed 9.5 g in nickel-brass. It was withdrawn along with the rest of them on 15 October 2017.
How to recognize it
The reverse shows a spreading oak tree with its roots and lower trunk enclosed by a royal diadem, with ONE POUND beneath. The Queen appears on the obverse in Maklouf's diadem portrait. England's pounds use the Latin DECUS ET TUTAMEN on the edge, meaning "an ornament and a safeguard". England did not get a separate motto. A coin with this oak and any edge inscription other than that one is not genuine. Because the 1987 and 1992 coins look the same in every respect, the date is the only distinguishing mark between them. The tree has a dense, rounded crown of leaves and on a sharp coin you can pick out the shapes of separate clusters within it.
The other side carries Raphael Maklouf's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used from 1985 to 1997.
1987 Oak Tree £1 by the numbers
In mintage terms the 1987 Oak Tree £1 ranks 24th lowest of 41 circulating £1 coins with a published mintage. The next scarcer is the 2004 Forth Railway Bridge £1 (39.2 million); the next more common is the 2008 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 (43.8 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1983 Royal Arms £1 with 443.1 million, about 11 times as many. The scarcest is the 2011 Edinburgh £1 with 935,000, 42 times fewer than this one.
It was the only circulating commemorative £1 coin dated 1987.
What to check on your 1987 Oak Tree £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.
At about 39.3 million, the 1987 Oak Tree is an average round pound and circulated coins are face value. An unworn coin with leaves that still show individual detail is a pleasant thing to own, though it only commands a small premium at most. Coins from Royal Mint annual sets are the best preserved. Worn coins lose the texture of the foliage first. Since fakes made up a noticeable share of round pounds by the end, it is worth comparing a suspect coin with a known genuine one of the same design.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 1 pound |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 1987 |
| Circulation mintage | 39,298,502 |
| 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
How many 1987 Oak Tree £1 coins were made?
The Royal Mint struck 39,298,502 Oak Tree pounds dated 1987 for circulation. The same design appeared again in 1992, when 36,320,487 were struck, so the two dates turn up in change in similar numbers.
Who designed the Oak Tree pound coin?
Leslie Durbin designed the Oak Tree reverse. He also created the Thistle, Leek and Flax Plant designs, giving the four national pounds of 1984 to 1987 a common style with each emblem rising from a royal diadem.
Mintage figures: One pound (British coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.