New pound coins in 2017

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Portsmouth Bids To Feature On The New Pound Coin

Portsmouth City Council has proposed a design featuring two key features of the Hampshire city - Nelson's flagship HMS Victory and the Spinnaker Tower, a viewing tower which overlooks the Solent created as a millennium project.

The local authority is entering its design into a public competition run by the Government to decide what will feature on the coin which will have the Queen's head on the other side.

Gerald Vernon-Jackson, the Liberal Democrat leader of the council, said: "I want Portsmouth to be first off the starting blocks for this competition. We'll push for a 'Pompey pound' with a design celebrating our city.

"HMS Victory is world-famous and symbolises our amazing heritage as the home of the Royal Navy, while the Spinnaker Tower has become an iconic modern image for the whole of the south of England.

"Portsmouth has played a pivotal role in the history of this country. With two huge new aircraft carriers soon to arrive, and all the new investment coming into the city, it's entering a new era. Its significance as a city should be recognised in this way.''

The new pound will be the most secure coin in circulation in the world and the Government expects to introduce it in 2017.

[augsburger]

I can't see on city getting on the coin. I know they did capital cities, but they have always done representation for the 4 different countries within the UK. Going for one city would then go and annoy all the other cities.

[Figleaf]

I would say Rotterdam with its glorious history as a VOC admiralty and world famous sons like admiral Piet Heyn is more deserving, because Heyn spoke Spanish. Iconic Euromast would make a good counterpoint, though, in honour of our member Paris, I could imagine Zadkine's Jan Gat doing the job also.

Peter

[Bimat]

Tails, you win: Osborne invites members of the public to design the new £1 coin with image which defines Britishness

14:37 12 Sep 2014, updated 14:39 12 Sep 2014

Members of the public are being asked to design the 'tails' side of the new £1 coin in a nationwide art competition.

Chancellor George Osborne said the design will be 'in millions of people's pockets and purses' when the coin is launched in 2017.

The new coin will be the same shape as the 12-sided threepenny or 'thrupenny' bit, which was in circulation until 1971, and officials say designers claim the new coin will be the hardest to copy in the world.

Ministers say urgent action is needed to combat the number of counterfeits in circulation.

The Royal Mint estimates that an astonishing 45million £1 coins – 3 per cent of the total – are fake.

The figure is as high as 6 per cent in some parts of the UK and two million counterfeits are removed from circulation every year.

The competition to design the 'tails' side of the coin is open to anyone, irrespective of how old they are or where they are from, the Treasury said. All entries must be submitted by October 30.

Entrants are being asked to 'show what Britain or 'Britishness' means, drawing on all of the qualities and quirks that make our nation unique'.

Mr Osborne said: 'Today we're asking people across the UK to help us design the new £1 coin.

'Think about your favourite landmark, or a great British achievement or a symbol from our Islands' Story.

'The winning design will be in millions of people's pockets and purses. It'll be heads you win; tails, it's your design.'

The £1 coin has been in use since 1983 – much longer than the normal life cycle for legal tender of its value – and 1.5billion were in circulation as of March 2013.

The outdated technology used to make the coin leaves it vulnerable to sophisticated counterfeiters.

Its replacement will be roughly the same size with security features including bi-metallic construction, the 12-sided design and the use of iSIS – integrated Secure Identification System. This means an additive is built into coins which can be authenticated by high-speed scanners.

The technology will allow vending machines to spot fakes much more easily.

The competition is open to anyone who wishes to enter, irrespective of how old they are or where they are from, the Treasury said. All entries must be submitted by October 30.

According to the rules of the competition, the denomination 'one pound' must appear as part of the overall design but it is left up to the designer precisely where this is placed.

Designs must not include a recognisable likeness of a known person, whether living or dead and designs must be the entrant's own work.

Artworks can be submitted in pencil, ink, paint or using computer drawing or design software, but three dimensional entries cannot be entered. All designs need to be presented on a template which can be downloaded from the Royal Mail's website.

People can enter more than one design if they wish, provided the entry is completed on the template, alongside a unique reference code which will be used to track the entry.

Giving tips to inspire competition entrants on its website, the Mint says designs should 'symbolise the UK in a clear and unambiguous way'.

It says: 'Whatever you choose as your inspiration, it must be readily understood to represent Britain.

'Think of symbols, heraldry, words, aspects of the natural world, man-made structures such as buildings and monuments, British achievements, whether social, political or cultural, and British institutions.'

Source: Daily Mail

[Bimat]

Government's 'design your own £1 competition' backfires spectacularly

By Mark Molloy
1:12PM BST 12 Sep 2014

A competition to give one lucky person the chance to put their design on the new £1 coin has been hijacked by Twitter pranksters.

The official Twitter account for Number 10 asked its followers what design they would put on the new £1 coin.
They received dozens of humorous replies featuring photoshopped images of coins including Mr Blobby, Alex Salmond and Batman.

All entries must be submitted by 30 October, with the winning coin to enter general circulation by 2017.

We're not sure it's what Chancellor George Osborne had in mind when he asked people to "think about their favourite landmark, great British achievement or a symbol from our Islands' story".

He added: "The winning design will be in millions of people's pockets and purses. It'll be heads you win; tails, it's your design."

Source: Telegraph

(Click on the link to see the funny designs )

[Bimat]

Here's Royal Mint's information about the design competition:

http://www.royalmint.com/newonepoundcoin

Aditya

[augsburger]

"Successful coinage designs commonly feature emblems or symbols and are often heraldic in their inspiration."

This is in their tips, I think this is what they might want.......

[Figleaf]

When was the last time a British king was seen in a harness? Will they ever get over heraldry?

Peter

[augsburger]

I've been thinking about it. They want some image, small enough for this coin, that represents Britain.

So it can't be a person, it can't be a building because any building is going to be in one of the 4 countries, and not be considered a part of just Britain. It can't be landscape.

What units all parts of Britain? Not much to be honest. Either you have 4 images on the coin or you have heraldry which, by its very nature, has 4 images (with Wales being represented by England, weirdly), or, you have a map of Britain. Or you have writing.

It's probably going to be a design that doesn't particularly inspire. I'd have thought they'd go for 4-5 designs like previously, but no.

[chrisild]

What I like about the design contest is that it is basically open to anybody. People from the UK are invited to participate, but so is everybody else, regardless of "passport" or age. Also, I think it makes sense to have one design for the new coin - others may still come later ...

Christian

[Figleaf]

What units all parts of Britain? Not much to be honest.

How about the language? Couldn't you do something with a Saxon the (now usually written ye) and a modern typeface THE? I know, Celtic, but it lives on mostly in Ireland and in Welsh road signs. (ducking)

Peter

[augsburger]

Problem is Saxon isn't British, it's only English, so it wouldn't go down well. Celtic could work as it was all over, though picking one thing, Boudicca was English Celtic, and is a personage.

[Bimat]

Zinc: World running out and shortage hits pound in your pocket

14 SEPTEMBER 2014

Prices for the rust-resistant metal zinc soared to a three-year high last week as exhausted mines across the world close, but it is with the pound in our pocket that we are likely to feel the soaring cost most acutely.

One and two-pound coins are made up of as much as 25 per cent zinc and analysts are predicting the Royal Mint may have to follow the example of the US Mint and take cost-cutting measures.

The news that zinc prices had spiked on Monday came only days before Chancellor George Osborne launched a competition to create an image that will be emblazoned on the "tails" side of the £1 coin.

He said in this year's Budget that the Royal Mint would manufacture a new £1 coin to reduce counterfeiting, but some analysts fear that when it enters circulation in 2017 it could be valuable for its metal content rather than its nominal monetary value.

Stephen Briggs, a senior metals analyst at BNP Paribas, said the market for the metal shows no signs of slowing down. He said, "Longer term I see metal prices stabilising higher – much higher – than where they are now. You could actually have a situation where the metal content of the coin is worth more than the value."

The Royal Mint does not release data on how much each coin costs to manufacture, citing "commercial interests". The Royal Mint is unlikely to be losing money,  according to numismatist Paul Davies.

He said: "This [refusal to comment] may not be because they are losing money. They're always in competition with other mints from around the world. They don't like giving other mints an angle on what they make big profits on. They're unlikely to be losing money."

Nonetheless zinc prices have risen by 17 per cent so far this year and production is expected to fall short of demand later this year for the first time since 2007, according to Goldman Sachs.

Mr Briggs puts this shortage down to the closure of "two or three larger" zinc mines, including the "huge" Century mine in Australia, which was "almost five times larger than anything new coming online today". Next year the supply of zinc is set to be reduced further, with predicted falls of up to 7 per cent in production.

Zinc supplies are partly running low due to the soaring global car market, which takes up vast quantities of the metal to produce galvanised steel.

It is a similar story in the rebounding global property development industry.

The US Mint has already been forced to reduce manufacturing costs to counter higher prices for zinc, which makes up 97.5 per cent of each 1 cent coin it produces. The issue is tougher for steelmakers; they use about half the world's yearly zinc supply.

Zinc isn't just used for the pound in our pockets or in steel-based products; it is used in everything from tyres to face creams. Major cosmetic brands say there are no plans for price rises, but Amanda McGillivray of the Natural Skincare Company is worried. She said: "This will have an impact on how much zinc manufacturers put into their sunscreens, as the prices are bound to rise. Already zinc oxide is very expensive, and this is why the mainstream suncare brands use chemical sunscreens instead, which we believe are harmful to the body."

Even without the negative impacts on skincare products, Mr Briggs warned it isn't time to start collecting pennies just yet. "It is illegal to melt down your coins," he said.

Source: Belfast Telegraph

[augsburger]

Well, looks like the competition is still on because Scotland said no. It would have been difficult to have Britishness when you couldn't include a part of Britain.

[andyg]

One and two-pound coins are made up of as much as 25 per cent zinc and analysts are predicting the Royal Mint may have to follow the example of the US Mint and take cost-cutting measures.

Summon should tell the Belfast Telegraph that the US cent is made from Zinc and costs more than a cent to make....