They all look too similar to me. Will it me easy to tell one value from another I wonder?

>>It is the first change to the country's coinage since decimalisation was introduced in April 1968

Surely that can't be right. I've seen multiple pound coin and fifty pence designs even this week. Unless they're taking the queens head off them, which isn't mentioned. Surely they mean the first time the 1p and 2p have changed since 1968.

Mupwangle,

Yeah, I know. It's a classic example of bad editing, and seems to have happened to half the British media. I suspect the original press release said something like "The first complete redesign of the whole range of coins for forty years" and some utter eejit rewrote that as "The first change to the coinage for forty years" and not one single subeditor seems to have had the nous to notice that that's just utter bollocks. I'm 34, and have seen the introduction of the pound coin, the two-pound coin, and the 20p coin, and the change in size of the 5p and 10p coins, and the removal of the ha'penny, and a different design on the pound coin every year since a few years after it was introduced, and at least four different 50p designs. It's kind of ridiculous that a newspaper with a multi-billion-pound budget and legions of fact-checkers can't spot that.

And the Queen's head is staying.


Blognor,

Do you tell the difference between the current designs by looking at the embossed design or by looking at the size, shape, and colour? 'Cause they're not changing.

I quite like them, to be honest.

>>There's no dragon (or leek) in the new designs, so the Royal Mint must hate the Welsh and want the Union dissolved. It's the only explanation.

Is this not bollocks anyway as Wales was invaded some 800 years ago and technically became part of England, hence why no mention on the crest or the flag? Therefore dissolving the union would split Scotland and N Ireland off but Wales being independant would involve a totally new act.

Or have I just made that up? (and will now probably get death threats from the welsh!) I'm not trying to annoy any welsh nationalists btw!

No, don't annoy them. They'll sing at you.

But I think you're broadly right, yes. "England and Wales" is the name of a single nation. Nationalists get annoyed when you point that out because they tend to think that saying it is one nation is the same as saying that it ought to be. As various people have pointed out, if they want a dragon on the Royal Shield, they should really take it up with the Royal Family, not the Royal Mint.

I believe there is some further heraldic complication because the three lions appear in two quarters of the shield, one representing England, one Wales. So Wales is represented on there, just not by the symbol they want to be represented by. I think.

My grandad (RIP) always referred to the pound coin as the thatcher - because it's thick, brassy and thinks it's a sovereign.

Thick?

Oh, come on, Stephen. There's no point arguing with the guy's dead grandfather.