Do you have a fake £1 coin in your pocket or purse? There’s a chance you might as apparently one in 20 of the pound coins in circulation is a fake!
The Royal Mint recently confirmed the percentage of fake pound coins in circulation has increased from 2% to 2.5%. But it has been suggested that the testing equipment is not sophisticated enough and the real percentage could be as high as 5% – or one in 20 coins. A car parking company ran it’s own tests with a sample of 2000 pounds coins withdrawn from a bank and they found that 3-4% of those coins were counterfeit.
So, how can you tell if your pound coin is a potential fake? Try these two simple methods:
- Look at the coins edge. The lettering on a counterfeit coin is often indistinct or in the wrong typeface.
- Hold the coin so that the Queen’s head is upright and facing you. The pattern on the reverse side should also be upright.
