The new £1 coin design that has been announced today will buck a coin trend that has lasted for more than 30 years.
No longer will the £1 coin be a rounded design, it will have 12 sides and will feature two colours instead of the traditional brass colour.
The new coin will be released in 2017 and will replace the current design which has been deemed too vulnerable to sophisticated counterfeiters by the Royal Mint. They estimate that up to 45 million pound coins in circulation are fake.
The design by 15 year old schoolboy David Pearce for the ‘tails’ side of the coin has been chosen above 6,000 other entries. It depicts national symbols of each of the four UK nations; an English rose, a Welsh leek, a Scottish thistle and an Irish clover.
The new pound coin designed by 15 year old David Pearce
The teenager was given the news in a phone call with Chancellor George Osborne earlier this week. David, a pupil at Queen Mary’s Grammar School in Walsall, will also visit Downing Street with the other finalists on Monday.
“I thought I had nothing to lose so I decided to enter,” said David. “I spent a lot of time researching what coin designs looked like and what sort of designs would represent all parts of the UK before submitting my idea and I honestly cannot believe I have won.”
The new £1 coin was announced by the Chancellor in last year’s budget. This year’s budget, to be announced later today, is expected to reduce some taxes for lower earners and savers and will prioritise the deficit still facing the UK economy.
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