Wrong fake pound advice

A wrong advice by police in Northern Ireland make retailers rejecting genuine pound coins as fakes, following a warning about an increase in counterfeit coins. Police warned people to look out for fake coins which do not have a ring of dots normally found around the circumference of the coin. However, some genuine 2008 and 2009 £1 coins do not have any dots. Police and bank had created panic around the issue of counterfeit coins. Police warning about fake pound coins described them in such a way as to easily confuse them with the legitimate 2008 coins. On monday, many retailer had refused to take 2008 shiny pound coins.

Photo by BBC News: 2008 pound coin that people think fake coin

Here is the official advice on how can you tell if your pound is fake, that we can get from The Royal Mint UK website:

• The date and design on the reverse do not match (the reverse design is changed each year). A list of designs and dates is available One Pound Coin.
• The lettering or inscription on the edge of the coin does not correspond to the right year.
• The milled edge is poorly defined and the lettering is uneven in depth, spacing or is poorly formed.The obverse and reverse designs are not as sharp or well defined.
• Where the coin should have been in circulation for some time, the colouring appears more shiny and golden and the coin shows no sign of age.
• The colour of the coin does not match genuine coins.
• The orientation of the obverse and reverse designs is not in line.

To make it easy to identify, the £1 coin is thicker than other coins while the 'yellow' colour allowed it to stand out from the cupro-nickel 'silver' coins already in circulation. The weight of the coin was decided largely on the grounds of cost and the need to allow for higher denomination coins in due course. The reverse designs represent the United Kingdom and its four constituent parts - Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England. The first series of designs took floral emblems as its theme, while the second series was heraldic in approach.

Photo: inscription on the edge of the one pound coin

Royal Mint spokesman Kevin Clancy said that while the ring of dots was "a real red-herring" when it comes to spotting a dud coin, there are a number of factors which can help in picking out the fakes.

He said the lettering might be more crude than on a genuine coin and it may show little sign of aging even after supposedly having been in circulation for several years.

"If you are given a £1 coin in your change, without even thinking you're instinctively assessing a range of factors - its weight, its diameter and colour," he said.

"The most obvious thing to look out for is the colour, as the weight is probably not going to be a deciding factor.

Fake pound coins may be darker in colour and the heads and tails could be non-symmetrical.

Source: BBC News, Royal Mint Website