2014 Thistle and Bluebell £1 Coin
The 2014 Thistle and Bluebell £1 is a circulating £1 coin with 5.18 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 2014
- Circulation mintage
- 5,185,000
- 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 2014 Thistle and Bluebell £1 worth?
With 5.18 million made, the 2014 Thistle and Bluebell £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 2014 Thistle and Bluebell £1 rare?
- No. 5.18 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 2014 Thistle and Bluebell £1 coins were made?
- 5,185,000 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 2014 Thistle and Bluebell £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 2014 Thistle and Bluebell £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 2014 Thistle and Bluebell £1 was made
The thistle has been Scotland's emblem since the Middle Ages. A well-known legend credits it with saving the country when a barefoot invader stepped on one and cried out, alerting the Scots. The bluebell is a later and gentler addition. In Scotland the name refers to the harebell, a small blue flower of hills and moorland, quite different from the English woodland bluebell that carpets forests in spring.
Scotland's coin completed Timothy Noad's set of four floral emblem pounds in 2014, released with the Northern Ireland coin after England and Wales the year before. The Royal Mint struck 5,185,000 for circulation, the lowest of the four floral designs, though the difference between them is small. Scotland had appeared on the round pound before with a single thistle in 1984 and a lion rampant in later years, so this pairing of thistle and bluebell gave a fresh take on a familiar theme. It had a short working life. Barely three years later the round pound was withdrawn and the 12-sided coin took over.
How to recognize it
Timothy Noad's reverse shows a thistle with a bluebell beside it, together with the denomination ONE POUND. The edge carries NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT, 'No one provokes me with impunity', the motto of the Order of the Thistle and the traditional Scottish royal motto. Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of the Queen is on the obverse with the date 2014. Leslie Durbin's 1984 thistle pound showed the thistle alone, so a coin with both flowers can only be this one. If the edge reads DECUS ET TUTAMEN, the pairing is wrong and the coin needs a much closer look before you trust it.
The other side carries Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used from 1998 to 2015.
2014 Thistle and Bluebell £1 by the numbers
Measured by how many were made, the 2014 Thistle and Bluebell £1 ranks 5th lowest of 41 circulating £1 coins with a published mintage. The next scarcer is the 2008 Royal Arms £1 (3.91 million); the next more common is the 2013 Rose and Oak £1 (5.27 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1983 Royal Arms £1 with 443.1 million, about 85 times as many. The scarcest is the 2011 Edinburgh £1 with 935,000, 5.5 times fewer than this one.
2014 brought 2 other circulating £1 coin designs: the Flax and Shamrock (5.78 million) and the Shield of the Royal Arms (79.3 million). The 2014 Thistle and Bluebell £1 was the scarcest of the year.
Within the 2013 to 2014 floral pounds, it ranks 1st scarcest.
What to check on your 2014 Thistle and Bluebell £1
- Read the edge. It should say NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT; 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.
With 5,185,000 struck, the Thistle and Bluebell is the scarcest of the floral pounds by a narrow margin. Circulated coins are mostly of interest for completing the set and carry little premium. Sharp, unworn coins draw a small premium. Royal Mint packs and the 2014 annual set held brilliant uncirculated examples. On those, the fine spines of the thistle and the bell shapes of the flowers remain crisp, while coins from change are rubbed flat on the high points. Counterfeit round pounds were common, so compare the color and edge lettering with a genuine coin.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 1 pound |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 2014 |
| Circulation mintage | 5,185,000 |
| Composition | Nickel-brass (70% copper, 24.5% zinc, 5.5% nickel) |
| Weight | 9.5 g |
| Diameter | 22.5 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Lettered: NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT |
| Portrait | Rank-Broadley |
Other 2014 £1 coins
| Coin | Circulation mintage | Value band |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 Flax and Shamrock £1 Coin | 5,780,000 | Face value |
| 2014 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 Coin | 79,305,200 | Face value |
Frequently asked questions
How many Thistle and Bluebell pound coins were made?
The Royal Mint struck 5,185,000 Thistle and Bluebell pounds for circulation in 2014. That is the lowest figure of the four floral emblem pounds, though only slightly lower than the English and Welsh coins of 2013.
What does NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT mean?
It is Latin for 'No one provokes me with impunity'. It is the motto of the Order of the Thistle and appears on the edge of the Thistle and Bluebell pound, along with other Scottish round pounds.
Mintage figures: One pound (British coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.