News - Most secure £1 coin has been unveiled, uses 12-sided design

[HEXUS]

New design based on the threepenny bit to be introduced as the current one is too easy to forge.

Read more.

[Dooms]

Good time to be working in the vending machine industry.

[slipthemonkey]

I got two (obviously) fake pound coins in my change in a bar the other day so hopefully this should be better.

[sykobee]

So what is iSIS then? An embedded RFID chip?

[Jonj1611]

So what is iSIS then? An embedded RFID chip?

This might help :- http://www.royalmint.com/business/circulating-coin/isis

[OilSheikh]

What a waste of money : )

[Goobley]

I'm dissapointed this isn't a shape of constant width - one of my favourite things about UK coins

[tygrus]

Firstly, get rid of the double chin. What's wrong with using a younger and more glamourous image of the Queen?
What will be the cost to all the fending machine owners to accept the new coin ? I assume the counterfeiters will still make fakes of the old coin..
Bank not security includes micro-printing which doesn't last on a coin that is scratched and worn.

[Frankenfurter]

I kinda like the new two-tone coin. I'm a fan of the current £2 coins too.
Not so sure about the new shape though... keep the pound round!

Economywise...... well, it might be a wise investment, at least it'll create a few jobs...

[Odeas]

I can't see it stopping many fakes in bar/shops etc, as your average joe in these places taking the money won't have the technology to check the technology in these coins.

They'll also be very new so people are even less likely to spot the fakes initially until they get used to the size, weight and designs of the new coins. I imagine anyone already creating fakes of the £2 coin could easily create basic copies of these, and they've got 3 years to do so before the real coin is introduced.

Is it bigger than the current pound coin? Certainly looks to be from the image above.

It's also going to cost around £100M to do all this.. seems worth it to get rid of £45M worth of fakes... oh wait.. maybe not!

Ah well, not long before we get plastic bank notes either!
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/12/uk-britain-boe-banknotes-idUKBREA2B0KT20140312

[Dooms]

Oh I also love them spending LOTS of money on new money (not just this new £1) with the queens head on it when really how long is left before they have to spend LOTS LOTS more replacing all the currency again with someone else's head on it?

[kalniel]

Oh I also love them spending LOTS of money on new money (not just this new £1) with the queens head on it when really how long is left before they have to spend LOTS LOTS more replacing all the currency again with someone else's head on it?

That only affects new coins - old coins with another head on are still legal tender and they wouldn't generally have to update machines to cope with a new picture (the picture on the other side changes quite often).

I like it. Only concern is this looks like it's going to be prime throwing material at football matches.

[virtuo]

Wouldn't it be cheaper (and harder to counterfeit) to bring back the pound note? That thing looks like it's going to snag holes in my trouser pockets.

[Niskin]

What a waste of money : )

Not a waste of money if you get a fake, you will loose money..

[scaryjim]

It's also going to cost around £100M to do all this.. seems worth it to get rid of £45M worth of fakes... oh wait.. maybe not!

From the mint's iSIS page:

It will reduce costs by replacing expensive clad and homogeneous coins with a more affordable full-plated option.

and

It will have considerably lower replacement frequency than other plated coin types.

So the new coins are cheaper than other secure coin types and will remain in circulation longer than previous coins, reducing costs long term as well as reducing costs from counterfeiting. Plus I suspect the total economic cost of having £45M of counterfeit coins circulating it somewhat higher than just the face value of the coins...

[herulach]

I can't see it stopping many fakes in bar/shops etc, as your average joe in these places taking the money won't have the technology to check the technology in these coins.

They'll also be very new so people are even less likely to spot the fakes initially until they get used to the size, weight and designs of the new coins. I imagine anyone already creating fakes of the £2 coin could easily create basic copies of these, and they've got 3 years to do so before the real coin is introduced.

Is it bigger than the current pound coin? Certainly looks to be from the image above.

It's also going to cost around £100M to do all this.. seems worth it to get rid of £45M worth of fakes... oh wait.. maybe not!

Ah well, not long before we get plastic bank notes either!
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/0...A2B0KT20140312

The idea is that you make it cost a significant % of £1 to fake. If you can produce a fake £1 for 10p then its an obvious money spinner, if it costs say 70p its pretty marginal.