For years, the old round pound coin was a familiar sight, jingling in pockets and filling up tills across the UK. But its simple, single-metal design made it a dream for forgers. This led to a flood of counterfeit pound coins that grew from a minor nuisance into a serious national problem, chipping away at public trust in our money.
Why Fake Pound Coins Became a National Issue
Before the super-secure 12-sided coin arrived in 2017, the round pound was absolutely plagued by fakes. The sheer scale of the problem was staggering. At its worst, it was estimated that a shocking one in every thirty round £1 coins changing hands was a worthless copy.
This wasn't just some abstract number; it had real consequences. Small businesses, shops, and anyone operating a vending machine really felt the sting. Every fake coin accepted was a direct loss, not to mention the time and effort wasted trying to spot them. For the rest of us, getting a dodgy pound coin in our change was just plain frustrating and slowly eroded our confidence in the currency we used every day.
The Scale of the Counterfeit Problem
The round pound’s Achilles' heel was its single-metal composition and relatively basic security features, which made it dangerously easy for counterfeiters to copy. As their techniques got better, the quality of some fakes became surprisingly convincing to the untrained eye, letting them slip into circulation and stay there for years.
Things got so bad that the government had to step in. By the early 2010s, official surveys suggested that around 3% of all £1 coins were forgeries. That figure had crept up steadily from less than 1% a decade earlier, proving it was a persistent and growing threat. You can dig into more data on how these fake coins impacted the UK economy and pushed for the creation of a new coin.
The Royal Mint had to act decisively. The sheer volume of counterfeit pound coins meant that maintaining the status quo was no longer an option. This directly led to the design and launch of what is now considered one of the most secure coins in the world.
To help you get your eye in, we've created a quick comparison table. It's a handy reference for the key differences you should look for between a genuine coin and a common fake.
Quick Guide to Spotting a Fake Round £1 Coin
| Feature | Genuine Round £1 Coin | Common Counterfeit Signs |
|---|---|---|
| Overall Appearance | Sharp, well-defined details with a consistent, high-quality finish. | Blurry, soft, or uneven details. Often has a pitted, poor-quality surface. |
| Colour & Lustre | Has a consistent, slightly brassy yellow sheen when new. | Can appear too shiny, dull, or have a strange, off-putting colour. May look greyish or coppery. |
| Edge Lettering | The inscription is crisp, evenly spaced, and correctly aligned. | Lettering can be poorly formed, spaced incorrectly, or even missing entirely. The orientation might be wrong. |
| Date & Design | The date and design features align perfectly on both sides of the coin. | The alignment of the Queen's head (obverse) and the design (reverse) is often slightly off-kilter. |
| Rim & Edge | The milled edges are precise and uniform all the way around. | The milled edges might be irregular, poorly defined, or show signs of filing or casting marks. |
Even a quick glance using these checkpoints can often be enough to raise suspicions. The most convincing fakes might get one or two things right, but they rarely get everything perfect.
Key Differences at a Glance
The image below from The Royal Mint is a great visual aid, highlighting some of the most common flaws you'll find in counterfeit round pounds.
As you can see, the fakes often have poorly defined details, messy edge lettering, and a strange colour or finish compared to the real deal. These visual clues are your first and best line of defence.
Although the round pound is no longer in circulation, many of us still have them tucked away in old piggy banks or coin jars. Knowing what to look for is still a useful skill, and it serves as a great reminder of why the 12-sided coin was such a necessary upgrade.
Right then, let's get our hands dirty and take a closer look at the old round £1 coin. While they've been out of circulation for a while, plenty of us still have them rattling around in drawers and old piggy banks. Learning to spot a dud is a great skill, and it's something seasoned coin handlers know how to do in a heartbeat. They rely on a few key visual tells that counterfeiters almost always get wrong.
The most classic giveaway, and the first thing I always check, is the relationship between the date and the edge inscription. A genuine coin has a specific Latin inscription that must match the year stamped on its face. Forgers were notorious for mixing these up. If the inscription doesn't correspond to the year, you’ve almost certainly found one of the millions of counterfeit pound coins that once flooded the UK.
Have a Proper Look at the Queen’s Portrait
Now, flip the coin over to the "obverse" (the heads side) and really study the Queen's portrait. On a legitimate coin struck by the Royal Mint, the detail in her effigy is incredibly sharp and well-defined. You should be able to make out the fine lines in her hair and the crisp outline of her jewellery.
Fakes, on the other hand, often look a bit "soft" or blurry. The details can seem muddy, almost as if the mould was worn out or just poorly made to begin with. The entire portrait can lack that crispness you'd expect, giving it a cheap, poorly defined look that’s a dead giveaway once you know what to look for.
This image below gives you an idea of where to focus your attention. You can see how getting up close with the tiny details, like the edge milling and the surface itself, is what truly exposes a forgery.
It really highlights why a magnifying glass is your best friend here. It’s in those minute, granular features where the fakes always fall short.
Check the Edges and the Metal Itself
The edge of the coin is another hotspot for mistakes. Run your thumb around a genuine round pound, and you'll feel precise, evenly spaced milled grooves. They’re uniform and consistent. Counterfeits, however, are a different story. You'll often find:
- Irregular or poorly defined grooves.
- Visible seams or casting lines where the two halves of a dodgy mould were joined together.
- Lettering that’s either too deep, too shallow, or just in the wrong font.
The colour and wear pattern of the metal can also tell you a lot. Real pound coins were made from a nickel-brass alloy, which gives them a distinct golden sheen when new that then ages gracefully over time.
A common trick for fakers was to use lead-based alloys and simply coat them with gold-coloured paint. This coating often chips or wears away, especially on the high points of the design, revealing a dull, greyish metal underneath.
Keep an eye out for any strange discolouration or a finish that seems either too shiny or too matte for its age. If a coin looks almost new but the details are weak, you should be suspicious. A real coin shows its wear and tear evenly, whereas a fake might have odd patches of wear that just don't make sense.
By combining these simple visual checks, you'll have a surprisingly powerful method for spotting a dud without needing any special equipment at all.
When your eyes are telling you something’s just not right with a coin, but you can’t quite put your finger on it, it’s time to trust your other senses. Sometimes a quick physical check can expose a forgery that a simple visual inspection might miss. These are the kinds of hands-on tests that seasoned handlers use when they need to be absolutely sure.
Physical Tests to Confirm a Suspicious Coin
One of the quickest and most reliable checks is the orientation test. Take the coin and hold it so the Queen's head (the obverse) is facing you and pointing straight up. Now, flip it over from top to bottom—not side to side, that's key. On any genuine round pound, the design on the other side (the reverse) should also be perfectly upright.
It's a surprisingly common mistake for counterfeiters to get this alignment wrong. If you flip the coin and the reverse design is crooked or completely upside down, you are almost certainly holding one of the millions of counterfeit pound coins that flooded the UK for years.
The Sound and Feel of a Genuine Coin
Beyond just how it looks, the very material of a coin can be a dead giveaway. Give the 'ring test' a go. Just gently drop the coin onto a hard surface, like a wooden table. A real pound coin is made from a dense nickel-brass alloy and will make a clear, high-pitched ringing sound.
In stark contrast, many fakes are churned out from softer, cheaper metals like lead or pewter. When you drop one of these, you’ll hear a dull, unsatisfying thud. That lack of resonance is a tell-tale sign of inferior materials and a classic red flag for a forgery. While it sounds basic, this simple sound check is incredibly effective. In our guide on how to identify counterfeit money, we delve into similar physical checks you can use for other types of currency.
Professional coin dealers and even long-serving cashiers often develop a 'feel' for genuine currency. After handling thousands of coins, they can sometimes spot a fake simply by its weight and the way it sits in their palm. A fake often feels subtly lighter or has a different, less solid balance to it.
Putting It All Together
No single test is ever completely foolproof, but when you start combining them, the evidence quickly becomes overwhelming.
Let's imagine a quick scenario:
- Visual Check: You spot a round pound, but the Queen's portrait looks a bit blurry and the lettering just seems off.
- Orientation Test: You do the top-to-bottom flip, and the thistle design on the back is completely upside down.
- Ring Test: You drop it on your countertop, and it makes a dull clunk instead of a sharp, clear ring.
Each test builds on the last, creating a solid case. A coin that fails all three of these checks is without a doubt a fake. These physical tests don't require any special equipment and give you a reliable method for confirming your suspicions, helping you tell a piece of history from a worthless imitation.
The Tech Behind the 12-Sided Pound Coin
The introduction of the 12-sided £1 coin wasn't just a simple cosmetic update; it was a direct answer to a growing crisis of confidence in our currency. The old round pound, bless it, had become so easy to fake that the integrity of the entire system was at risk. The Royal Mint needed something new—a design that would be exceptionally difficult, if not impossible, for forgers to replicate, making counterfeit pound coins a problem of the past.
The scale of the problem was truly staggering. By 2017, estimates suggested there were as many as 45 million fake coins rattling around in our change. This prompted a complete overhaul, and the new 12-sided coin, introduced on 28 March 2017, was designed from the ground up to be what many now call the most secure circulating coin in the world. You can read more about how this redesign aimed to restore public trust on the Royal Mint’s official page.
This new coin is a marvel of modern minting, packing in several clever security features that work together to create a formidable defence against counterfeiting.
A Bimetallic Build
The first thing you notice is its bimetallic construction. The outer ring is a gold-coloured nickel-brass alloy, while the inner circle is a silver-coloured nickel-plated alloy. This two-part design is far more complex and expensive for a forger to produce than a simple, single-metal coin.
Just creating a bimetallic blank is a serious challenge, let alone ensuring a seamless, durable bond between the two metals. That requires specialised machinery that’s well beyond the reach of most criminals.
The Hidden Latent Image
Here’s where it gets really clever. One of my favourite features is the latent image. If you look at the coin from one angle, you'll see a '£' symbol in the small panel just below the Queen's portrait. Tilt it slightly, and it magically transforms into the number '1'.
This hologram-like effect is created by engraving extremely fine lines at different angles—a process that demands incredible precision. It’s such a simple visual check for any of us to perform, but a complete nightmare for forgers to copy with any accuracy.
The real strength of the 12-sided coin lies in how these overt and covert security features work together. A forger might be able to poorly replicate one feature, but copying all of them convincingly is an almost impossible task.
Micro-Lettering and Milled Edges
Take a closer look and you'll spot the incredibly small lettering, a detail many people miss. Tiny letters spelling out "ONE POUND" are engraved on the obverse side, just inside the rim of the inner silver-coloured disc. On the reverse, the year of minting is inscribed in the same way. This micro-text is extremely difficult to reproduce without it becoming a blurry mess.
Finally, feel the edge of the coin. It has alternating milled and smooth edges. Six of its twelve sides are grooved, while the other six are plain. This isn't just for looks; this irregular pattern adds another layer of complexity that's very hard to replicate consistently. It also gives the coin a unique tactile feel, another subtle way for people to subconsciously recognise a genuine piece.
What To Do If You Find a Counterfeit Coin
Finding a fake coin in your change is an awkward moment. You're suddenly down a pound, and you're left holding a worthless piece of metal that's also technically illegal.
Your first thought might be to quietly slip it into the next self-checkout or a vending machine. I get it, but you absolutely shouldn't. That’s a serious mistake.
Knowingly passing on counterfeit currency is against the law. The moment you realise, or even have a strong gut feeling, that you’re holding one of the many counterfeit pound coins that were once so common, you have a legal duty not to use it. Following the right steps isn't just about doing the right thing—it's about protecting yourself.
The Correct and Legal Steps
The process is actually much more straightforward than you might think. You are required to take the suspicious coin to your local police station.
When you hand it over, make sure to ask for a receipt or an incident number. This is your proof that you've done your civic duty and surrendered the item. It's a small but important detail.
It's crucial to manage your expectations, though. You will not be reimbursed for the coin's face value. The police will simply take it, document the find, and add it to their collection of fakes. It can feel a bit frustrating to be out of pocket, but it’s a necessary step in getting these fakes out of the system for good.
Think of it this way: by handing in a fake, you're performing a small public service. You're stopping that coin from ending up in a small business's till or in someone else's pocket, saving them the exact same loss and annoyance you just went through.
Why This Action Matters
Every single counterfeit coin taken out of circulation helps protect the integrity of our money. It throws a spanner in the works for forgers and gives the authorities a clearer picture of just how big the problem is. Your small action really does contribute to a much larger effort.
Of course, the best defence is a good offence—knowing how to spot the fakes in the first place. For a much deeper look at the techniques, check out our guide on the 7 proven methods for detecting counterfeit coins in 2025.
The bottom line is simple:
- Don't spend it: Using a fake coin on purpose is a criminal offence.
- Take it to the police: Hand it over and get that all-important receipt.
- Accept the loss: Unfortunately, you won't be compensated for its value.
By following this advice, you’re not only protecting yourself but also helping your community and playing a small but vital part in keeping our currency secure.
Your Questions About Counterfeit Coins Answered
Even with the new 12-sided pound firmly established in our wallets, there's still a lot of curiosity and confusion out there about fake coins—especially the old round pounds. We get asked about them all the time, so let's clear up some of the most common questions you might have.
The problem with fake round pounds really spiralled in the decade before they were phased out. The numbers tell a stark story: the rate of fakes in circulation jumped from 0.92% in 2002 to a staggering 3.04% by 2013. Think about that for a moment. By the time it was withdrawn, roughly one in every 33 round £1 coins was a forgery.
It's no wonder people still have practical questions about the odd one they find down the back of the sofa.
Are the Old Round Pound Coins Still Worth Anything?
The short answer is no, not really. The round £1 coin was officially demonetised back in October 2017. This means shops, pubs, and other businesses have no obligation to accept them as payment.
For a while, some high-street banks were letting their own customers deposit them, but that service has become very rare now. For most people, their only real value is to a collector. If you happen to have a particularly rare design or a coin in mint condition, it might be worth more than its face value. Otherwise, a standard round pound coin is just a piece of history with no spending power.
Can I Get in Trouble for Accidentally Using a Fake Coin?
This is a fear many people have, but the law is quite clear on this. You only commit a criminal offence if you knowingly try to pass off a counterfeit coin as genuine. If you use one by genuine mistake, you haven't broken the law.
The key thing is what you do once you realise it's a fake. The moment you suspect or know a coin is counterfeit, you have a legal duty not to use it. The right and proper thing to do is to hand it over to the police, who will make sure it's taken out of circulation for good.
Once you know, you can't go. As soon as you're aware a coin is counterfeit, you are legally responsible for not passing it on. It’s a simple rule that protects you and everyone else.
Why Do Vending Machines Reject Some Coins?
Those modern vending machines and self-service checkouts are smarter than you might think. They are fitted with incredibly precise sensors that analyse every coin popped into the slot. They check for three key things:
- Weight: How heavy the coin is, down to a fraction of a gram.
- Size: The exact diameter and thickness.
- Metallic Composition: The specific blend of metals it’s made from.
Because counterfeit pound coins are almost always made from cheaper, different alloys, they rarely get these measurements spot on. The machine instantly detects the discrepancy in weight, size, or metallic signature and spits the coin right back out. It's a clever, built-in security feature.
Are There Any Counterfeit 12-Sided Pound Coins?
The Royal Mint calls the new 12-sided £1 the ‘most secure coin in the world,’ and for good reason. While it's probably impossible to make any currency 100% forgery-proof, this one comes incredibly close.
The sheer complexity of the design makes it a counterfeiter's worst nightmare. Features like the bimetallic construction (two different coloured metals), the latent image that changes from a '£' to a '1', and the tiny micro-lettering are exceptionally difficult to replicate convincingly.
As a result, the number of fake new pound coins in circulation is extremely low, especially when compared to the plague of fake round pounds. The redesign has been a massive success in that regard. For more general tips on spotting fakes, you can always refer to our guide on how to check if money is real.
At Cavalier Coins Ltd, we are passionate about the history and security of currency. Whether you are a seasoned numismatist or just starting your collection, explore our extensive selection of authentic coins and banknotes from around the world. Discover your next treasure at https://www.cavaliercoins.com.