5 Ways to Identify a Fake Pound Coin in an Instant

According to a survey by the Royal Mint, in March this year about two out of every 100 of the 1.47bn pound coins in circulation fake coins. That's around 30m duff nuggets. And if one fake pound coin is in your pocket it is a criminal offence to spend it.

Follow these steps and you will have no trouble in identifying a fake pound coin:

1) The date and design on the reverse should correspond.

2) If the coin does not have the right picture for its year (Gateshead's Millennium bridge in 2007, for example) then it's a fake coin. The same applies to the inscription around the edge. You can check both at royalmint.gov.uk.

3) The milled edge may be poorly defined or the lettering uneven in depth and spacing.

4) If the Queen and the picture are faint, or not the same way up, or if the coin looks smart and shiny even though it has supposedly been jangling around 20 years.

5) Fake pound coins usually do not work in vending machines either, although some might say that hardly differentiates them from the real ones.

Source: guardian.co.uk, UK