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- 2.975 million new £1 coins will enter circulation from today for the first time since 2017
Britons will start finding new £1 coins in their change this week featuring the image of King Charles III and it could cause a stir among numismatists.
The coin will enter circulation today, the Royal Mint said, and features bees. It is one of eight new coins unveiled last October as part of a collector’s set featuring King Charles.
It is the first time since the new style of 12-sided coin was launched that there has been a £1 coin in circulation with a design other than the one with the “crown nations” on the reverse.
Trending: The new £1 coin featuring two bees and a portrait of King Charles III will enter general circulation this week
There are believed to be around 750 million £1 coins minted with this design.
However, this new bee design has a mintage of 2.975 million. They were minted last November, so they all bear the year 2023.
Whether or not more £1 coins will enter circulation will depend on demand; mintage figures for the new coins will be published later in the year, but there will be no more than 2.975 million with the year 2023 stamped on them.
Last month, This is Money revealed that The Royal Mint plans to stop making new coins from scratch from December and instead focus on expanding its gold recovery facilities.
Gregory Edmund, senior specialist at auction house Spink & Son, said: ‘It is a surprise that the Royal Mint is issuing new coins given the announcement that they would stop producing new coins from scratch last month.
“If they stick to a strict circulation figure of 3 million, that would be very unusual because it’s so low.”
We may be in a moment of agony where we don’t know how many more coins the Royal Mint will issue this year, so it might be worth collecting them.
The number indicating the value of each of the new coins has been expanded since the last time a new £1 coin was released in 2017.
The Royal Mint said the aim was to “help children understand the value of money.”
Cash payments are accounting for an increasingly smaller proportion of all transactions. Cash use fell last year to 12 per cent of all payments, and UK Finance says 22 million adults are “primarily cashless”.
Data showed 1.5 million adults used cash as their main spending method last year, according to data from UK Finance, the first increase since 2019.
Edmund said: ‘The coins will be popular and will spark general intrigue. With a mintage of 3 million, it will be one of the rarest £1 coins in circulation.
“This shows that the winds of change are blowing. We may be at a point where we don’t know how many more coins the Royal Mint will issue this year, so it could be worth collecting them.”
Could bee-shaped £1 coins be worth a silver coin in the future?
The degree of coveting that a new coin will one day achieve among collectors will depend on the number of coins that enter circulation.
The scarcer a coin is, the more collectible it will be, as Mr. Edmund de Spink points out above.
To put this into context, one of the most sought-after coins is the legendary Kew Gardens 50p coin from 2009. Only 210,000 of these coins were minted and they sell on eBay for up to £250.
With almost 3 million new £1 coins initially entering circulation, one coin expert This is Money spoke to says they won’t be worth more than their face value.
Generally, circulating coins that have minting errors or mistakes, such as an incorrect date, command a premium.
Phil Mussell, director of Token Publishing, said: ‘These coins are unlikely to be worth more than their face value in the future.
‘A standard circulating coin rarely arouses the interest of collectors because it will become commonplace and, in time, every coin we carry in our pockets will feature King Charles III.
“It’s true that some people will immediately list them on eBay and some may sell for £5 because collectors want to be the first to get their hands on them, but these coins won’t sell for more than that.”
A collectible set of uncirculated coins is available to purchase from The Royal Mint website starting at £33.
These coins in the collector series feature a privy mark, a small crown on the obverse or a “heads” design next to the effigy of His Majesty, which will distinguish them from the ones people will receive in their change from today.
Rebecca Morgan, Head of Commemorative Coins at The Royal Mint, said: ‘The Royal Mint has minted circulating coins of every British monarch since Alfred the Great and it is an honour to reveal that the King Charles III £1 coin is now in circulation.
“We know there will be great excitement among collectors and the public to receive this special piece of history in exchange. We hope that the designs of all denominations will spark important conversations about the conservation of these important species.”
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