Record number of fake British £1 coins could force reissue
Tom Wayne
in 40 to 1 in 36 just within the past year. The quality of the
counterfeits has become so good that half of them are now accepted by
parking meters and vending machines, which in the past have largely
rejected them. There is talk of "reissuing" or "reminting" the coin,
whatever that means. If it means recalling the coins currently in
circulation and minting new ones with a different
design/size/composition, what would prevent the new coin from being
counterfeited?
Record number of fake British £1 coins could force reissue --
July 27, 2010
There are now so many fake £1 coins in circulation the Royal Mint
could be forced to scrap all of the coins and reissue the entire
denomination.
Their warning came as new figures indicated there were £41 million
fake £1 coins in Britain -- one in every 36 in circulation. This is a
record level and suggests that the proportion of counterfeit coins had
tripled in the last decade.
The situation has worsened since last year, when one in 40 £1 coins
were fake. Experts and MPs said the level of fakes were so high there
was now a serious risk that consumer confidence in Britain's most
popular coin was becoming compromised.
The figures were published in a Parliamentary answer supplied by
Justine Greening, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, to Andrew
Rosindell, a Conservative MP.
Mr Rossindell said the number of counterfeits was "a genuine matter
for concern".
"This has a huge effect on confidence in our currency. Clearly the one
pound coin is something the Royal Mint needs to reconsider. Even one
in a hundred fake coins is too many. The effect on consumers has to be
a major consideration. if you take it to the shop that gives it to you
they may replace it on trust, but they don't have to. A lot of people
have lost out because of this. I hope that the Government will look at
it more deeply."
The biggest losers are small shopkeepers who are not refunded by banks
if they send fake coins from their tills.
Robert Matthews, the former Queen's Assay Master at the Royal Mint,
the most senior coin tester in the country, said: "If the number of
fakes keeps increasing at this rate, there will have to come a point
when the Treasury makes the decision whether to remint or not."
Scrapping the £1 coin would be very expensive for the Government as
well as major upheaval for consumers. However, other countries have
been forced to take similar action when counterfeits became too
prevalent. The 5 rand coin in 2004 was reissued after taxi-drivers and
shopkeepers in South Africa started to refuse to accept them. Fakes
were just 2 per cent of all coins, compared with 2.81 per cent with
the British £1.
Experts said it was becoming increasingly difficult for shoppers in
Britain to spot a fake. The only time they usually notice is when they
are rejected by a parking meter or vending machine, which contain
devices to monitor whether the metal composition of the coins is
correct. However, at least half the fakes are now so good they pass
these tests.
Jonathan Hilder, the chief executive of the Automatic Vending
Association of Britain, representing snack and drinks machines which
take £1.6 billion of coins every years, said: "Ironically, the fakes
are so good that it isn't yet causing a problem for consumers. Because
they don't usually spot them, the trust in the coin is still high.
"But if fakes continue to rise, reminting will have to become an
option."
A Treasury spokesman said: "Any level of counterfeiting is a matter of
concern and the Government takes it extremely seriously. Maintaining
confidence in our currency is of paramount importance and we continue
to keep our actions in response to counterfeiting under constant
review."
note.boy
circulation is far too high, I haven't spotted one for years.
Perhaps it's down to poorer eyesight as I age? :-) Billy
"Tom Wayne" <twn...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:rmt856dc11jrof7ak...@4ax.com...
oly
> They are either extremely good fakes or the number estimated to be in
> circulation is far too high, I haven't spotted one for years.
>
> Perhaps it's down to poorer eyesight as I age? :-) Billy
>
> "Tom Wayne" <twn...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:rmt856dc11jrof7ak...@4ax.com...
>
>
>
> > The number of counterfeit British one pound coins has increased from 1
> > in 40 to 1 in 36 just within the past year. The quality of the
> > counterfeits has become so good that half of them are now accepted by
> > parking meters and vending machines, which in the past have largely
> > rejected them. There is talk of "reissuing" or "reminting" the coin,
> > whatever that means. If it means recalling the coins currently in
> > circulation and minting new ones with a different
> > design/size/composition, what would prevent the new coin from being
> > counterfeited?
>
>
> - Show quoted text -
It struck me that this article (I saw it earlier on @321gold website)
was a kind of slow "dog-days of summer" journalistic attempt.
In the event of reissue (still kind of premature, I think), I would
highly recommend that the Royal Mint use a "better", harder alloy.
The present coin is kind of soft and "pot metal-ly" and even it loses
its golden color (they become somewhat silvery) after fifteen or
twenty years use. The round pounds from the mid 1980s just look bad -
either the design has gone all "soft" or are covered with nicks or
small indentations and small gouges.
The Telegraph website article features two sets of photo examples,
well worth looking at - the "real" coin didn't look much better than
the fake coin. The edge on the fake wasn't great (these coins have
reeding and impressed/embossed mottos on the edge), but it wasn't a
bad attempt either.
They might have had the pictures mixed up!!! Both coins looked bad.
The "round" pound is the most regularly used coin in the U.K., I am
certain of that. After that, the twenty pence seems most prevalent.
It would be a big job to replace the round pounds. Probably need
fifteen or twenty coins for each of the 53 million (or so) persons
living in the U.K.
oly
Tony Clayton
> On Jul 31, 1:34 pm, "note.boy" <note....@naespamntlworld.com> wrote:
>> They are either extremely good fakes or the number estimated to be in
>> circulation is far too high, I haven't spotted one for years.
>>
>> Perhaps it's down to poorer eyesight as I age? :-) Billy
>>
>> "Tom Wayne" <twn...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>
>> news:rmt856dc11jrof7ak...@4ax.com...
>>
>>
>>
>>> The number of counterfeit British one pound coins has increased
>>> from 1 in 40 to 1 in 36 just within the past year. The quality of
>>> the counterfeits has become so good that half of them are now
>
> It struck me that this article (I saw it earlier on @321gold website)
> was a kind of slow "dog-days of summer" journalistic attempt.
>
> In the event of reissue (still kind of premature, I think), I would
> highly recommend that the Royal Mint use a "better", harder alloy.
>
> The present coin is kind of soft and "pot metal-ly" and even it loses
> its golden color (they become somewhat silvery) after fifteen or
> twenty years use. The round pounds from the mid 1980s just look bad -
> either the design has gone all "soft" or are covered with nicks or
> small indentations and small gouges.
>
> The Telegraph website article features two sets of photo examples,
> well worth looking at - the "real" coin didn't look much better than
> the fake coin. The edge on the fake wasn't great (these coins have
> reeding and impressed/embossed mottos on the edge), but it wasn't a
> bad attempt either.
>
> They might have had the pictures mixed up!!! Both coins looked bad.
>
> The "round" pound is the most regularly used coin in the U.K., I am
> certain of that. After that, the twenty pence seems most prevalent.
>
> It would be a big job to replace the round pounds. Probably need
> fifteen or twenty coins for each of the 53 million (or so) persons
> living in the U.K.
The real answer is to go bimetallic, like the French did with their 10 franc
coin.
Some of the forgeries are so good that a close examination of the
edge letters is needed - the real coins have a clearly defined
base to the grooves comprising the edge legend, while the forgeries do not.
--
Tony Clayton
tony.cla...@pem.cam.ac.uk
oly
>
> - Show quoted text -
Good idea: bimetallic is only a short leap for the Royal Mint,
inasmuch as the 2 pound coin already uses that technology.
oly
Michael G. Koerner
Howabout striking £1 coins of the same designs and dimensions, but using the
exact same 'sandwich' strip composition that is used on USA$1 coins
(manganese-brass outer layers bonded to a core of pure copper)? The brass
alloy is much harder than the current one used in £1 coins and the differences
in the colo(u)rs of the various layers are difficult to fake.
This should last until such time as the UK takes the Euro plunge.
(DUCKS and RUNS!!!!)
(heehhehehehehe)
--
___________________________________________ ____ _______________
Regards, | |\ ____
| | | | |\
Michael G. Koerner May they | | | | | | rise again!
Appleton, Wisconsin USA | | | | | |
___________________________________________ | | | | | | _______________
amdeline olson
>
> - Show quoted text -
One would think that the financial events in Greece which have
occurred so far in 2010 would make even the most ignorant member of
Parliament quite wary of abandoning the GBP.
Simply put, countries that can't print their own money have lost their
sovereignty.
Besides, there's no way the Germans would want to be 100% on the hook
for the British economy too. The happy Germans are already the
ultimate guarantors for every other country now in the Euro currency
scheme (so is America's Federal Reserve Bank).
oly