Money Changes Everything

With news of the new pound coin being rolled out in 2017, retiring its 31 year old predecessor we decided to take a look at how this could affect everyday activities and businesses.

How The New Pound Coin Will Affect Vending Machines

While the vending machine companies won’t have to take back any machines with the old slots the coin mechanism and software may have to be changed and updated to accommodate the new shape and anyone buying a new vending machine will have to upgrade.

How The New Pound Coin Will Affect Shopping Trolleys

Similar to the vending machines the mechanism on your bog standard supermarket trolley will have to change, when you consider that there are over 2 million trolleys in circulation it soon adds up.

How The New Pound Coin Will Affect Lockers

If you are a regular visitor to gyms and leisure centres you will have seen the £1 lock lockers, these will also have to be changed when the new pound comes into circulation, some may have to replace the lock completely or there may be the option of a modification kit, this is something you will have to confirm with your supplier.

How The New Pound Coin Will Affect Parking Metres

At a cost of £500 per machine to be re-calibrated for the new pound coin it is estimated that this will cost around £50 million (around 100,000 machines). This will be at the cost of the local council so there is the danger that you might see them trying to the recoup the money through raiding resident permits.

The estimated total cost of changing all coin slots in the machines above (and many others, like the phone box) to accommodate the new pound coin is around £100 million.

Of course this isn’t the first time in recent history that coins have change, there was the 5p which reduced in size in 1990, in 1992 the 10p followed suit and most recently the 50p in 1997.

Do you have a rare coin?

Did you know there are many rare coins that are in circulation at the moment that could be at the bottom of your bag or jingling in your pocket?

In 1971 the two pence coin as we know it was introduced, to avoid confusion with other similar looking coins in circulation at the time the words ‘New Pence’ were incorporated into the tail design, this was removed in 1982 and replaced by ‘Two Pence’ however in 1983 a mistake lead to a batch of 2p coins being produced with the words ‘New Pence’ these are now thought to be worth between £500-£700 each.

20p

In 2009 the date switched from the tails side to the head side, however 100,000 were minted without a year on them. This is the first time this has happened since 1672 (King Charles II was ruling. So if you find one of these it can be worth an excess of £100.

50p

There are a couple of 50ps you need to keep an eye out for, all commemorative.

Kew Gardens

In 2009 the Royal Mint released into circulation a 250th anniversary coin for Kew gardens, only 210,000 are in circulation and with the recent news that this is one of the rarest in circulation their value has increased. They are selling on ebay for over £100.

Olympics Aquatics

This coin was initially issued with water passing over the swimmers face, however this was then withdrawn and an updated version, where the face is clearer was put into circulation, find one of the withdrawn coins and you could earn yourself up to £3,000!