Time is running out to spend your old £1 coins – and one in three people still have them in their homes
The old-style circular coins will stop being legal tender on October 15
TIME is running out to spend your old £1 coins as it's revealed that one in three still have them stashed around their homes.
It's time to check behind the sofa and in the bottom of bags because the old-style circular coins will stop being legal tender on October 15.
So far 800million of the old style coins have been returned, but there are many more still out there.
The process of replacing the coins, which have been in circulation for 33 years, began in March with the release of the new 12-sided version.
The new coins are harder for counterfeiters to copy amid reports about one in every 30 old-style coins are fakes.
The Treasury has said that by July there will be more new pound coins than old ones in circulation.
People have been flogging new coins with faults - with a window cleaner expected to land up to £3,000 after he found one with two different dates stamped on it.
Hundreds of new £1 coins have been listed on eBay with sellers claiming they too are rare.
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As a general rule of thumb, the rarer the coin the more valuable it is, and we’ve also published a £1 scarcity index, based on data from Checkcheker, so you can find out the value of each of the 24 £1 coin design.
“As people add these coins to their collection and more are removed from circulation by the banks, they become significantly rarer,” experts at Changechecker said on Wednesday.
What to do you if you've got a rare coin?
FIRSTLY, you need to make sure the coin is legit and not counterfeit.
- Around one in every four old £1 coins were thought to be fake, according to the Royal Mint, so there are probably more fakers in your spare change then you realise
- The Royal Mint is unable to value a coin but it can confirm whether it is real or not. They will usually supply you with a letter to confirm this.
- Once you’ve found out whether the coin is real or not, you have a number of options – either selling it through a coin dealer, at auction or on eBay.
“In change collecting the rarity of a coin has an impact on its value, some of the rarest £1 coins can sell for up to 35 times their face value on auction sites” they added.
The Sun Online has also previously shown which error coins can bag you the most cash.
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