2010 Belfast £1 Coin
The 2010 Belfast £1 is a circulating £1 coin with 6.21 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 2010
- Circulation mintage
- 6,205,000
- 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 2010 Belfast £1 worth?
With 6.21 million made, the 2010 Belfast £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 2010 Belfast £1 rare?
- No. 6.21 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 2010 Belfast £1 coins were made?
- 6,205,000 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 2010 Belfast £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 2010 Belfast £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 2010 Belfast £1 was made
Belfast was granted city status in 1888, at a time when shipbuilding and linen had made it one of the fastest growing industrial towns in these islands. When Northern Ireland was created in 1921, Belfast became its capital. Its coat of arms reflects that maritime and civic history. The motto, taken from scripture, asks what can be given in return for so much, a fitting thought for a city built on hard work.
The Belfast pound was one of the first two coins in Stuart Devlin's capital cities series, released in 2010 with London. Devlin, an Australian-born goldsmith, had a long career in coin design that included the reverses of Australia's first decimal coins. The Royal Mint struck 6,205,000 Belfast pounds for circulation, the largest total of the four city coins. That still made it a small issue by round pound standards, a fraction of the shield pounds produced the same year. Like the other capital cities pounds, it reached change with little fanfare, so most people who own one simply found it in their purse or pocket.
How to recognize it
Stuart Devlin's design shows the coat of arms of Belfast. The quickest confirmation is on the edge, which reads PRO TANTO QUID RETRIBUAMUS, Belfast's own Latin motto, roughly 'What shall we give in return for so much?'. No other round pound uses this inscription. The obverse shows Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of the Queen with the date 2010. Edge lettering on round pounds can run either way up relative to the portrait, so an inscription that reads upside down is normal. What should worry you is an edge that says DECUS ET TUTAMEN on a Belfast reverse, because that combination was never made.
The other side carries Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used from 1998 to 2015.
2010 Belfast £1 by the numbers
In mintage terms the 2010 Belfast £1 ranks 9th lowest of 41 circulating £1 coins with a published mintage. The next scarcer is the 2014 Flax and Shamrock £1 (5.78 million); the next more common is the 1988 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 (7.12 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1983 Royal Arms £1 with 443.1 million, about 71 times as many. The scarcest is the 2011 Edinburgh £1 with 935,000, 6.6 times fewer than this one.
It was released in 2010 alongside 2 other circulating £1 coin designs: the London (2.63 million) and the Shield of the Royal Arms (57.1 million). 1 of them had a smaller run.
Within the 2010 to 2011 capital cities pounds, it ranks 4th scarcest, behind the Edinburgh, Cardiff and London.
What to check on your 2010 Belfast £1
- Read the edge. It should say PRO TANTO QUID RETRIBUAMUS; 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 6.2 million, the Belfast pound is the most common of the capital cities coins, though it is still scarce next to any shield year. A circulated coin is mostly of interest to someone completing the set of four and carries little or no premium. Uncirculated coins from Royal Mint packs and the 2010 annual set are crisper and brighter. Since round pounds were heavily counterfeited, compare yours with a genuine coin: the arms should be sharp, the metal an even golden color and the milling neat and regular all the way round.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 1 pound |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 2010 |
| Circulation mintage | 6,205,000 |
| Composition | Nickel-brass (70% copper, 24.5% zinc, 5.5% nickel) |
| Weight | 9.5 g |
| Diameter | 22.5 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Lettered: PRO TANTO QUID RETRIBUAMUS |
| Portrait | Rank-Broadley |
Other 2010 £1 coins
| Coin | Circulation mintage | Value band |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 Coin | 57,120,000 | Face value |
| 2010 London £1 Coin | 2,635,000 | Small premium |
Frequently asked questions
How many Belfast £1 coins were made?
The Royal Mint struck 6,205,000 Belfast pounds for circulation in 2010. That is the highest figure of the four capital cities coins, well above London, Cardiff and Edinburgh, but low compared with the everyday shield pound.
What does the edge of the Belfast pound say?
It reads PRO TANTO QUID RETRIBUAMUS, the Latin motto of the city of Belfast. A common translation is 'What shall we give in return for so much?'. The inscription appears on no other round pound.
Mintage figures: One pound (British coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.