Rare £1 coins: the lowest-mintage round pounds and the 12-sided £1

The rarest round pound, according to The Royal Mint, is the 2011 Edinburgh £1 with 935,000 struck, followed by the 2011 Cardiff (1,615,000) and 2010 London (2,635,000) coins. Round pounds stopped being legal tender on 15 October 2017 and were replaced by the 12-sided £1.

By the Coin Scanner team · Updated 2026-10-13

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The round pound, 1983 to 2017

By the early 1980s a £1 note lasted only around nine months on average, while a coin can last for decades. The government announced on 31 July 1981 that a £1 coin would replace it, and the round pound was issued on 21 April 1983. It was thick and gold-coloured so that it would stand out from the silver-coloured cupro-nickel coins. Its reverse designs represented the United Kingdom and its four nations, first with floral emblems and later heraldic ones, and most designs carried an edge inscription. DECUS ET TUTAMEN (an ornament and a safeguard) was the usual one, with NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT on Scottish designs and PLEIDIOL WYF I'M GWLAD on Welsh ones.

The lowest-mintage round pounds

The table lists the lowest circulating mintages for the round £1, sorted from rarest, using The Royal Mint's published figures and its design listings.

The four capital-city coins of 2010 and 2011 were designed by Stuart Devlin. Each shows the official badges of the UK's capitals, with one city's badge as the main focus, and each has its own edge inscription. That makes the edge a quick way to confirm which one you have. The Floral emblem coins of 2013 and 2014 were designed by Timothy Noad. Note that 2008 saw two £1 designs: Eric Sewell's Royal Arms, which is the scarce one, and Matthew Dent's new shield (43,827,300).

Why round pounds were withdrawn

The Royal Mint has said that approximately one in thirty round £1 coins in circulation was a counterfeit. Replacing it was the first change to the £1 coin in more than thirty years. The new 12-sided coin entered circulation on 28 March 2017, and for about six months both coins circulated together. The round pound lost its legal tender status at midnight on 15 October 2017. Since then shops do not have to accept round pounds, but The Royal Mint says most high-street banks will still take them as deposits (check with your own bank, as limits vary), and they can be donated to charity.

The 12-sided £1 and its security features

The 12-sided coin's reverse, showing the rose, leek, thistle and shamrock growing from one stem inside a royal coronet, was designed by David Pearce, who won a public competition at the age of 15. Queen Elizabeth II's fifth portrait by Jody Clark appeared on it from 2017, and King Charles III's portrait by Martin Jennings has been used since 2022. A bees design was later introduced for King Charles III.

The Royal Mint lists the following security features:

• 12 sides, making it easy to recognise by sight and touch.
• Bimetallic construction: a gold-coloured nickel-brass outer ring and a silver-coloured, nickel-plated inner, with the reverse design struck across both parts.
• Latent image: a small feature that changes from a £ symbol to the number 1 when the coin is tilted.
• Micro-lettering on the lower inside rims: ONE POUND on the obverse and the year on the reverse.
• Milled edges, with grooves on alternate sides.
• A hidden high-security feature built into the coin, which The Royal Mint says police can check with a portable detector.

Are any 12-sided pounds rare?

Not in the way the round pounds are. The Royal Mint lists 749,616,200 coins for 2017 and 648,936,536 for 2016-dated coins. Smaller years exist, such as 2022 (7,735,000 with Queen Elizabeth II) and the 2023 Bees £1 (10,030,000), but these are still in the millions.

How to check a £1 coin

1. Read the design and the date, then compare them with the table.
2. Read the edge. On round pounds, the inscription should match the design, for example NISI DOMINUS FRUSTRA on a 2011 Edinburgh coin.
3. Check the specification. A genuine round pound is nickel-brass, 22.5 mm across and weighs about 9.5 g. A 12-sided coin weighs 8.75 g.
4. Look at the detail. With roughly one in thirty round pounds being counterfeit, a coin with soft detail, an odd colour or a mismatched edge needs an expert opinion before you rely on it.

Photograph both sides with Coin Scanner to identify the design, read the date and get an estimated value range. The app does not authenticate coins, so if you think you have a scarce round pound in good condition, have it checked by a reputable dealer or a professional grading service. Any value you see is an estimate, and condition and demand will decide the final price.

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