The solid gold 1 kilo Olympic coin will be legal tender accorind to a news reported by The Telegraph. This will be the first ever legal tender £1,000 gold coin produced by the Royal Mint. The coin was the most expensive item of a large range of official Olympic merchandise unveiled earlier this month, including beach towels, fridge magnets, silver cufflinks, egg cups, bed linen and even train sets. Royal Mint new mega coins had cleared its first hurdle in the House of Commons early this month. The law currently prevents coins from being minted outside of regulation weights.
Because it is legal tender any person who buys the coin will, in theory, be able to take it into a shop and use it to buy something. In practice, this is highly unlikely to happen, because though the coin has a face value of £1,000, it is expected to cost between £40,00 and £45,000, meaning the coins will only be bought by collectors. There have been one kilo gold coins produced by the Royal Mint previously, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. However, these were not legal tender in the United Kingdom as they were technically Alderney coins; minted on behalf of the Channel Island.
The coins, the largest ever to be circulated in the UK, would cost an estimated £40,000 and £1,250 respectively and were part of London's bid for the Games. All of them would be put up for sale while Britain's best-known artists would design the coins. In total 60 will be made, alongside 14,000 silver £500 coins.
Source: The Telegraph
