New £1 coin starts today
Discussion
MarshPhantom said:
I know, but this won't be cheap. How much does counterfeit One Pound coins cost the country?
It is estimated that 47 million coins were counterfeit. So with that, I'd say £47 million is the potential exposure, because it is only effective once somebody refuses to accept that coin, surely?If I gave a counterfeit coin to Poundland to buy something, they are now £1 down. Until that is, they give that £1 in change to someone else who had just bought something. That coin will go around and around being accepted as currency by everyone who touches it until the person at the bottom gets told it is fake and loses it. Who that might be, I don't know, I guess it will be the person who tries to take it to a bank and pay it in as genuine currency.
That might be too simple a way of looking at it.
Legal tender has nothing to do with parking meters or whether coins must be accepted in shops. As the Royal Mint themselves put it, "it does not mean that any ordinary transaction has to take place in legal tender." Legal tender is purely about how debts are settled, not purchases. The BBC article says that from 15 October shops will be under no obligation to accept old pound coins, which is technically true -- because they are already under no obligation to accept them! They're under no obligation to sell you anything (providing they comply with laws about discrimination etc.)
The 50p isn't legal tender for amounts above £10, but that doesn't seem to bother anyone, and it doesn't stop you buying something worth more than £10 in 50p coins. It's entirely up to the vendor what kind of payment, if any, they accept.
The 50p isn't legal tender for amounts above £10, but that doesn't seem to bother anyone, and it doesn't stop you buying something worth more than £10 in 50p coins. It's entirely up to the vendor what kind of payment, if any, they accept.
We could do this.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rai_stones
I liked the bit about one dropped off a boat but they knew where it was so still legal tender.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rai_stones
I liked the bit about one dropped off a boat but they knew where it was so still legal tender.
thinkofaname said:
... The 50p isn't legal tender for amounts above £10, but that doesn't seem to bother anyone, and it doesn't stop you buying something worth more than £10 in 50p coins. It's entirely up to the vendor what kind of payment, if any, they accept.
Probably because when a shop pays a truckload of 50p coins into the bank, said bank has no way of knowing whether those coins were taken as one per transaction, or a small number of huge transactions.Mr-B said:
I like how it's virtually fake proof, there is even a secret hidden material in the coin so that machines can tell whether it's genuine or not, doesn't say how humans are going to be able to detect this hidden material when it's in the palm of your hand though.
God I hope the new secret material is tallow after the melt down people had over the new fiver.Mr-B said:
I like how it's virtually fake proof, there is even a secret hidden material in the coin so that machines can tell whether it's genuine or not, doesn't say how humans are going to be able to detect this hidden material when it's in the palm of your hand though.
It's probably an embedded RFID chip of some sort, maybe with a unique reference that lets a machine read it as "real" but also has a batch number to match up to the pressing year. They've been put in higher value casino chips for years.Shakermaker said:
MarshPhantom said:
I know, but this won't be cheap. How much does counterfeit One Pound coins cost the country?
It is estimated that 47 million coins were counterfeit. So with that, I'd say £47 million is the potential exposure, because it is only effective once somebody refuses to accept that coin, surely?If I gave a counterfeit coin to Poundland to buy something, they are now £1 down. Until that is, they give that £1 in change to someone else who had just bought something. That coin will go around and around being accepted as currency by everyone who touches it until the person at the bottom gets told it is fake and loses it. Who that might be, I don't know, I guess it will be the person who tries to take it to a bank and pay it in as genuine currency.
That might be too simple a way of looking at it.
I would say roughly half the coins I find in my wallet are fake. A good giveaway is poor markings on the side of the coin or look closely at the edge at the ring that follows the perimeter and you will often find that the imprint will not be centred perfectly.
It must cost places like Poundland and small shops a fair bit because when they take all their coins to the bank, surely the bank must refuse half of them! When I give to charity, I usually check the coin to make sure it's a genuine one.
AlexC1981 said:
I'm quite good at spotting fake coins as I did some temping after I left college for a local council and one of my jobs was to pour all the parking machine money through a machine which sorted it and it spat out some of the fake pound coins.
I would say roughly half the coins I find in my wallet are fake. A good giveaway is poor markings on the side of the coin or look closely at the edge at the ring that follows the perimeter and you will often find that the imprint will not be centred perfectly.
It must cost places like Poundland and small shops a fair bit because when they take all their coins to the bank, surely the bank must refuse half of them! When I give to charity, I usually check the coin to make sure it's a genuine one.
Don't rely on the banks - I think it was Watchdog last year that did a feature on withdrawing pound coins from the counter at each high street bank. On average 1 in 5 was fake, and of course you'd have no comeback or proof on the BANK giving you fake money I would say roughly half the coins I find in my wallet are fake. A good giveaway is poor markings on the side of the coin or look closely at the edge at the ring that follows the perimeter and you will often find that the imprint will not be centred perfectly.
It must cost places like Poundland and small shops a fair bit because when they take all their coins to the bank, surely the bank must refuse half of them! When I give to charity, I usually check the coin to make sure it's a genuine one.
Evangelion said:
thinkofaname said:
... The 50p isn't legal tender for amounts above £10, but that doesn't seem to bother anyone, and it doesn't stop you buying something worth more than £10 in 50p coins. It's entirely up to the vendor what kind of payment, if any, they accept.
Probably because when a shop pays a truckload of 50p coins into the bank, said bank has no way of knowing whether those coins were taken as one per transaction, or a small number of huge transactions.So you cannot pay a £60 speeding fine in 50p pieces. A £10 fine you could. 10ps are £5 limit. As are 5ps. Coppers are only legal tender up to 20p. Current BoE notes are valid upto any amount. You cannot pay in old £1 notes. You cannot pay in Scottish Bank notes. You cannot pay in Euros. Or cocaine. Or precious jewels. Or sheep. None of these are "legal" tender.
Shops are free to accept any for of payments (acorns if they like), as are banks free to accept any currency to deposit. They are also free to reject any form of payment to.
MarshPhantom said:
Evangelion said:
AlexC1981 said:
... I would say roughly half the coins I find in my wallet are fake ...
So what do you do with these fakes when you find them?
Trustmeimadoctor said:
Watch out for the 2016 dated coins
There are some rare 2p coins about. Apparently. A result of a botched let out or whatever. Might be a few keepers with this lot.http://www.royalmint.com/help/help/new-pence-coin
http://www.checkyourchange.co.uk/2p-coins-in-circu...
Got a few early ones my self but not the rare ones.
TEKNOPUG said:
MarshPhantom said:
Evangelion said:
AlexC1981 said:
... I would say roughly half the coins I find in my wallet are fake ...
So what do you do with these fakes when you find them?Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff