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The new £1 Coin

thenewpoundcoin.com

191–200 of 421 posts

Re: The new £1 Coin

#191
post #81
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's super cool, but this coin is not used in general circulation and is more or less only a collectors item.

That seems weird. Why would they spend 10 years of research to produce a one-off collectors item?

As a case study before introducing it into general circulation.

Developing a new coin for hundreds of millions of people in daily use is a big task, it’s easier to start with a subset of 80 million potential users to demonstrate feasibility, and test.

Re: The new £1 Coin

#192

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?

Not sure if this is flawed, but I want to attempt an analogy that felt right to me.. Let's say they figured out catching a thief cost £500 and it became public knowledge the police wouldn't investigate any theft under £500. The cost of transitioning to the £1 seems worth it to prevent further abuse.

Re: The new £1 Coin

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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

That's a good point, I completely oversaw that.

Re: The new £1 Coin

#194

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?

I'd imagine the point is to prop up confidence in fiat money. Cash represents 3% of "money" so a small counterfeit issue with pound coins is a fraction of a %.

Meanwhile the entire currency is debased annually by failing to include land prices into the inflation calculations, despite most credit creation being against land.

This debases GBP for workers every year. Therefore propping up confidence is vital.

Re: The new £1 Coin

#195

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?

Its a politically strategic time to reaffirm some kind of public 'pride' in the Pound. Its a symbol of nationalism.

(am brit)

Re: The new £1 Coin

#196
post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Maybe that is the "hidden feature" that they describe on the linked page.

Well people had been stating on this thread that if that was the hidden feature, it'd not be "hidden" for long as anyone can get and cut open a coin to see if there's anything like that inside.

Re: The new £1 Coin

#197

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?

Because one GBP is worth so little now it's not economic to manufacture notes which don't last long. Other coins have also become smaller and lighter as they try to keep the issuance cost below the cost of the metal.

Re: The new £1 Coin

#198
post #7

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

Security through obscurity is just fine as part of a layered approach.

Re: The new £1 Coin

#199

It reminds me of the old threepenny (prounounced "thrupny") bit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threepence_%28British_coin%29

The Royal Mint are actually selling a commemorative set that includes the new £1 along with a old Threepence coin.

http://www.royalmint.com/shop/h/hisoneth

Re: The new £1 Coin

#200

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?

Notes need to be replaced much more often than coins, making them significantly more expensive. There are actually people arguing for doing the exact opposite of what you suggest in the US - replacing all $1 notes with $1 coins to save money.

> replacing all $1 notes with $1 coins to save money

yay. Australians didn't die when they introduced the $1 note and remove 1c and 2c coins - they seem to do just fine.

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