Guernsey pound coins to be withdrawn in October

The decision to withdraw the local version of the coin has been approved by the Policy & Resources Committee after it was announced the UK's current designs will be defunct from 15 October this year.

This will follow the introduction of a new 12-sided UK £1 coin next month.

There are no plans to introduce a Guernsey equivalent.

Central Services director Lee de Carteret said islanders should make sure they exchange both Guernsey and UK £1 coins at high street banks before this date.

'As part of the 2014 Budget, the UK government announced its intention to introduce a new £1 coin,' he said.

'This is the first change to the £1 coin since 1983, and has become necessary due to the increasing vulnerability of the current design to fraud.

'The new coin, which is 12-sided and includes anti-counterfeiting technology, will start to enter circulation in March. While Guernsey does not have any issues with regards counterfeiting of its £1 coins, mirroring the UK's £1 coin withdrawal was necessary for practical purposes.

'Due to the continued popularity of the Guernsey £1 note and the lack of demand for £1 coins locally, there are no current plans to introduce new 12-sided Guernsey £1 coins although this will be kept under review.'

There are currently 581,000 Bailiwick of Guernsey £1 coins in circulation and the local high street banks have not requested any new stocks for more than 10 years.

Guernsey £1 notes will continue to be issued alongside the circulation of new UK £1 coins locally.

The decision to withdraw the Guernsey £1 coin follows the previous adoption locally of coin design changes made by the UK, with the reduction in size of the 50p, 10p and 5p pieces, as well as the introduction of the £2 coin, being adopted by Guernsey.

The new UK £1 coin features the English rose, the Welsh leek, the Scottish thistle and the Northern Irish shamrock emerging from one stem within a royal coronet.

At 2.88mm thick it is thinner than the current version, and at 8.75g lighter.

Approximately one in thirty £1 coins in circulation is a counterfeit.