2013 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 Coin
The 2013 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 is a circulating £1 coin with 13.1 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 2013
- Circulation mintage
- 13,090,500
- 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 2013 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 worth?
With 13.1 million made, the 2013 Shield of the Royal Arms £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 2013 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 rare?
- No. 13.1 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 2013 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 coins were made?
- 13,090,500 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 2013 Shield of the Royal Arms £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 2013 Shield of the Royal Arms £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 2013 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 was made
Thirty years after the round pound first appeared, 2013 brought a new set of national designs to the coin: a pair of floral emblems for England and Wales, with Scotland and Northern Ireland to follow in 2014. Matthew Dent's shield carried on alongside them, but in much smaller numbers than in any other circulating year of its run.
The Royal Mint struck 13,090,500 shield pounds dated 2013 for circulation, the lowest total of any circulating shield year. The floral pounds took part of the year's demand. The number of new coins ordered by banks varies from year to year. That figure is nothing like scarce by the standards of the capital cities coins. It is still enough to make the 2013 shield the date that collectors of the design look for first. As with every round pound, these coins circulated until 15 October 2017 and many went back to the banks in the final months, which has trimmed the number still around. Uncirculated examples survive mainly in Royal Mint annual sets from that year.
How to recognize it
Matthew Dent's reverse shows the full shield of the Royal Arms with ONE POUND beneath. The quartering is the same as every other shield pound: three lions of England twice, the lion rampant of Scotland and the harp of Ireland. The year appears only on the obverse, where Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of the Queen has the date 2013 in the legend. The edge reads DECUS ET TUTAMEN. If your 2013 pound shows a rose and oak leaves, or a leek and daffodil, you have one of the floral coins of that year instead. Check the edge too, since the Welsh floral coin has a different inscription.
The other side carries Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used from 1998 to 2015.
2013 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 by the numbers
By the numbers, the 2013 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 ranks 12th lowest of 41 circulating £1 coins with a published mintage. The next scarcer is the 1986 Flax Plant £1 (10.4 million); the next more common is the 2011 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 (25.4 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1983 Royal Arms £1 with 443.1 million, about 34 times as many. The scarcest is the 2011 Edinburgh £1 with 935,000, 14 times fewer than this one.
It shared 2013 with 2 other circulating £1 coin designs: the Rose and Oak (5.27 million) and the Leek and Daffodil (5.27 million). The 2013 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 was the most plentiful of the year.
What to check on your 2013 Shield of the Royal Arms £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 13.1 million, the 2013 is the lowest mintage circulating shield pound. That makes it a little more interesting than other shield years, though still common in absolute terms. A circulated coin is not a rarity. Collectors may pay a small premium for a sharp, uncirculated example, which usually comes from the 2013 annual set and shows bright, unscratched surfaces. Remember that forgers did not always copy dates correctly. A coin's date, portrait, edge and reverse must all belong together. If any one of them looks wrong or crude, set it aside.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 1 pound |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 2013 |
| Circulation mintage | 13,090,500 |
| 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 | Rank-Broadley |
Other 2013 £1 coins
| Coin | Circulation mintage | Value band |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 Rose and Oak £1 Coin | 5,270,000 | Face value |
| 2013 Leek and Daffodil £1 Coin | 5,270,000 | Face value |
Frequently asked questions
Is the 2013 £1 coin rare?
The 2013 shield pound has the lowest circulation mintage of any shield year, 13,090,500. That is still a large number, so a worn one is not rare, but it is the shield date collectors are most keen to find in good condition.
How many different £1 coins were issued in 2013?
Three designs carry the 2013 date for circulation: the shield of the Royal Arms, with 13,090,500 struck, plus the Rose and Oak and Leek and Daffodil floral pounds, with 5,270,000 each.
Mintage figures: One pound (British coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.