Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I still hadn't realised they might be fake, though. Yeah, I was the same until a machine failed and a colleague said that the coin might be fake. There is something rather delicious in the fact that we're so used to machines and computers failing that the idea the coin could be wrong never entered our heads!
True rage is having a machine reject your money for overpriced parking while you stand under one of those anti-loitering alarms.
The new £1 Coin
341–350 of 421 posts
Re: The new £1 Coin
#342Earlier quoted context omitted.
I briefly worked in an arcade a few years back, so was changing a lot of £1 coins. 1 in 30 sounds about right, it was amazing how many fakes we'd see. Like others have said, the lettering around the edge is always the biggest clue, but also the head and tails stampings will sometimes be off centre, and misaligned to each other. The fake ones also make the 'wrong' noise when you drop them on a hard surface. It's hard…
What was the process when you found one? Report it in some way, or hope the bank didn't notice?
Re: The new £1 Coin
#343Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> 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. Is this not already true? When my laptop was stolen, I was advised "don't bother reporting it to the police".
Re: The new £1 Coin
#344Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've never ever seen anything like this. It would appear that this functionality has been there for a while and was also triggered on the Queen's birthday[0] [0] http://metro.co.uk/2016/04/13/how-very-english-visitors-to-t...
Similar queuing mechanisms are used on things like Ticketmaster which experience extreme demand peaks when high-demand tickets go on sale. Presumably the Royal Mint experience similar demand peaks occasionally when limited-release collectable coins go on sale?
Re: The new £1 Coin
#345Earlier quoted context omitted.
Similar queuing mechanisms are used on things like Ticketmaster which experience extreme demand peaks when high-demand tickets go on sale. Presumably the Royal Mint experience similar demand peaks occasionally when limited-release collectable coins go on sale?
Yeah, but, this displayed the article that I wanted to read, then redirected me to a queue system, now i'll eventually go back to the actual page. Its causing more work for the system. The ticketmaster queues block a heavyweight process (ticket search), not simple page displays. This is the equivalent of ticketmaster not letting you see pages with lists of upcoming performances without waiting in a queue.
Re: The new £1 Coin
#346Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was cheated in the most crude way in London once - gentlemen selling African street food gave me (in my change, amongst other coins) a coin that looks and feels very much like a British pound, but is Ugandian (IIRC) and has some kind of ostrich-like bird's head on it instead of the Queen's.
It happens a lot around here (in New York, a few hours from the Canadian border) with Canadian coins. Obviously it's a bit different here, as the values are roughly the same, but I can see how that would happen as an honest mistake.
I'm in a city now and I've had people refuse to accept 2 dollar bills (which are rare, though absolutely legal tender).
Re: The new £1 Coin
#347Earlier quoted context omitted.
Per the article, one in thirty of these coins are counterfeit.
Occasionally you do get a pound coin that is slightly heavy. I guess those are the counterfeit ones. Bit hard for the layman to tell.
Re: The new £1 Coin
#348As a UK citizen, it stuns me that one-in-thirty pound coins is a fake because a) i can't imagine how it's possibly worth it b) out of the thousands of pound coins i must have handled, I've never spotted a fake - they must be very good. Still, the new coin certainly looks nice!
As a student a dude in Liverpool was selling 50 for £10. A guy I knew lived on them for 3 years. His life revolved around 99p stuff.
Re: The new £1 Coin
#349It 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
#350Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a student a dude in Liverpool was selling 50 for £10. A guy I knew lived on them for 3 years. His life revolved around 99p stuff.
Why didn't the dude just spend them himself? Too many fakes for that to be a viable option?
Probably easier to disperse the coins and hopefully not let them be traced back to you