New 12-sided £1 coin hits the streets of London

The new 12-sided £1 coin sparked a gold rush when it went into circulation on the streets of London today.

The coin, which has a gold-coloured outer ring and a silver-coloured inner ring, has been described as the most secure in the world and boasts high-tech features including a hologram.

It might take a few days or weeks for people to start seeing the new coins in their change as they gradually filter into general use.

But banks and building societies in London which were given early supplies today quickly found themselves inundated with coin hunters

New 12-sided one pound coin - In pictures

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A branch of Santander in Triton Square, Camden, opened at 8.30am with £500 worth of new coins - but ran out within minutes.

James Padolsey, 26, from Highgate, north London, who bought £20 in £1 coins, said: “I read an article saying the coins would be in this branch so I headed down on my way to work.

“I’ll probably keep a couple, but spend most of them because I like the novelty of it.

“The new £1 is quite a good-looking coin, and it’s quite light so I think it will get confused for the euro by some people.”

Joshua Best, 25, a producer from Hendon, north west London, said: “I saw the way the £5 notes got sold on eBay before so I thought ‘let’s get this £1 coin and see what happens’.

“I’ll show it to my friends and maybe give it to a family member, maybe it will be an heirloom.”

The old coin and the new coin will co-exist until the round pound ceases to be legal tender on October 15.

The new version is based on the design of the old 12-sided threepenny bit, which went out of circulation in 1971.

Consumers have been warned they may face difficulties when they attempt to pay at vending and ticket machines, as some will not immediately accept the new coin.

The Automatic Vending Association (AVA) says around 85 per cent of vending machines can accept the new £1 coin and all will still accept the old coin.

But when the Standard tried one this morning to pay for parking in Camden, the machine failed to recognise it.

The AVA estimates that all vending machines will be fully upgraded by the end of the transition period on October 15.

Tesco trolleys across many of its stores have unlocked as the supermarket giant performs upgrades so that they can accept the new coin.

The new coins have been made at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant, South Wales, at a rate of three million per day.

One pound coins were first launched on April 21 1983 to replace £1 notes. The Royal Mint has produced more than two billion round pound coins since that time.

The production of the new coins follows concerns about round pounds being vulnerable to sophisticated counterfeiters.

Around one in every 30 £1 coins in people’s change in recent years has been fake.

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