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The new £1 Coin

thenewpoundcoin.com

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Re: The new £1 Coin

#171

Post by IshKebab »

bambax wrote: post #158

Why not make the new £1 coin Euro compatible? Despite Brexit and all, it would make so much sense to share the same dimensions for the pound and the Euro. Old pound: diameter 22.5 mm, thickness 3.15 mm. New pound: diameter 22.63 - 23.43mm [1], thickness 2.8 mm. Euro: diameter 23.25 mm, thickness 2.33 mm. So close and yet so different! Why??!? Edit: Okay, I'm not sure why I saw "so much sense" in having the pound and…

Erm, I don't think vending machine owners would like that. What would be the advantage anyway? £1 isn't €1.

Re: The new £1 Coin

#172

Post by Belphemur »

adaml_623 wrote: post #163
bambax wrote: post #158

Why not make the new £1 coin Euro compatible? Despite Brexit and all, it would make so much sense to share the same dimensions for the pound and the Euro. Old pound: diameter 22.5 mm, thickness 3.15 mm. New pound: diameter 22.63 - 23.43mm [1], thickness 2.8 mm. Euro: diameter 23.25 mm, thickness 2.33 mm. So close and yet so different! Why??!? Edit: Okay, I'm not sure why I saw "so much sense" in having the pound and…

Because then vending machines would accept Euro coins as well as pound coins and you would be able to obtain goods for 60%(?) of the asking price??

False.

The vending machine use setup of electromagnet to recognize the coin, not their size. [1]

[1] http://someinterestingfacts.net/how-do-vending-machines-work...

Re: The new £1 Coin

#173

Post by mbrookes »

ardaozkal wrote: post #129
anothercomment wrote: post #4

For a moment I thought/hoped the UK would introduce an official cryptocurrency...

I kinda hoped that they'd include something like an RFID chip with something like a certificate inside, signed by the royal mint (Turkish government recently switched IDs to something like that). That'd allow verifying every single new coin (unless it is damaged to the level of breaking the rfid chip, but I suppose that's not that easy). It'd also enable tracking. I kinda regret that idea now. BUT if used responsibly…

"Hidden high security feature – a high security feature is built into the coin to protect it from counterfeiting in the future."

So you never know - but how would that work inside a metal coin?

Re: The new £1 Coin

#175

Post by morsch »

muse900 wrote: post #170

What I don't get is why we need coins anymore? Can't they just make £1 pound note same to the £5 one? I am always annoyed when I got coins on me and I never pay attention to them. Why not make £1 worth more by making it a note? Why not move away from notes nowadays? Is there any specific reason to that? Is there just too much metal sitting around that they thought that would be an ok use of it?

A quick look suggests that one reason is that coins last a lot longer than paper currency.

Re: The new £1 Coin

#176

Post by DanBC »

bambax wrote: post #158

Why not make the new £1 coin Euro compatible? Despite Brexit and all, it would make so much sense to share the same dimensions for the pound and the Euro. Old pound: diameter 22.5 mm, thickness 3.15 mm. New pound: diameter 22.63 - 23.43mm [1], thickness 2.8 mm. Euro: diameter 23.25 mm, thickness 2.33 mm. So close and yet so different! Why??!? Edit: Okay, I'm not sure why I saw "so much sense" in having the pound and…

Blind people need to be able to tell the difference.

Re: The new £1 Coin

#177

Post by pjc50 »

muse900 wrote: post #170

What I don't get is why we need coins anymore? Can't they just make £1 pound note same to the £5 one? I am always annoyed when I got coins on me and I never pay attention to them. Why not make £1 worth more by making it a note? Why not move away from notes nowadays? Is there any specific reason to that? Is there just too much metal sitting around that they thought that would be an ok use of it?

We used to have pound notes, and they're still technically in circulation in Scotland (although I've never seen one). According to wikipedia they were withdrawn because:

"Part of the reason for this change was that notes, on average, lasted only nine months in general circulation, while coins could last forty years or more. The government also believed that the growing vending industry would benefit from the introduction of a one pound coin."

Maybe the economics have changed with polymer notes. But the BoE inflation calculator tells me that the £1 notes withdrawn (in 1984 money) would be worth about £3 today. So maybe the fiver is next.

Then there's the lunatics that want to abolish physical money altogether...

Re: The new £1 Coin

#178

Post by belorn »

andy_ppp wrote: post #136
wonderous wrote: post #131

For any interested in the related costs: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/mar/19/cost-new-pound... Seems like there are £45m worth of counterfeit coins in circulation, but the switch may cost over £100 million. ____ EDIT: The percent of fake coins in circulation appears to be in flux, which makes me wonder what methods they use to estimate the fakes in circulation, if they use controls like injecting known fake…

So there was no point in doing it? This seems super weird for a financial institution that should be looking at hard data; maybe they did some analysis about the increasing ease of forgery?

Sweden is also replacing the coins with new ones and a major advantage I keep hearing is that their weight is lighter, which reduce transportation costs and makes it easier for bank.

But I would guess from a public relation perspective, asking a whole population to replace their coins just to make it cheaper and easier for banks is a harder sell that arguing security.

Re: The new £1 Coin

#179

Post by _archon_ »

enthdegree wrote: post #112

Is it a curve of constant width like the 20p and 50p? If its sides are straight it cannot be. Also from wiki: > The new design is intended to make counterfeiting more difficult, via an undisclosed hidden security feature, called 'iSIS' (Integrated Secure Identification Systems). [1] Huh. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_pound_(British_coin)

The coin does appear to be a Reuleaux solid, which was a relief to me. British coins are some of the most common Reuleaux solids in the world.

The sides are not straight; they are curved outwards. The curve is defined by an arc of a circle whose center is the opposite corner on the coin.

It's a neat class of shapes! My dive into them came while researching the rotary Wankel engine (rotors are roughly Reuleaux triangles)

Re: The new £1 Coin

#180

Post by iandioch »

wolfgke wrote: post #97
torrent-of-ions wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've never had a vending machine or self-service checkout reject a pound coin before? I've held ones which are noticeable lighter and more worn than a real one. You've just never really paid attention.

At least for Euro coins (are these more difficult to fake?) it often happened to me that some vending machine accepted a coin only after multiple tries.

What might be fun to try is to use a Euro 5c coin in a machine that expects 20p sterling coins. Living on the border with Northern Ireland, we figured out when I was young that the sweet machines in Northern shopping centres could be conned like that.
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