It comes amid concerns about the 30-year old coin's vulnerability to counterfeiting², with an estimated 45 million forgeries³ in circulation.

 

The new coin is based on the design of the old 3d (three penny) piece, or threepenny bit, a 12-sided coin in circulation between 1937 and 1971.

 

A competition will be held to decide the image on one side of the coin.

 

The Royal Mint, which believes 3% of existing £1 coins are fake, said the move would increase "public confidence" in the UK's currency and reduce costs for banks and other businesses.

 

 

The announcement comes as Chancellor⁴ George Osborne prepares to deliver his fifth Budget on Wednesday.

 

He tweeted this picture of the £1 coin next to the Budget Box, captioned⁵: "Today I will deliver a Budget for a resilient economy - starting with a resilient pound coin."

 

The current £1 coin was introduced in 1983 as part of the phasing out of the one pound note, which was withdrawn⁶ five years later. 

 

Of the 1.5 billion coins estimated to be in circulation, as many as two million counterfeit¹ ones are removed every year.

 

The government said the existing coin had been in existence longer than most others and its technology was no longer suitable to combat increasingly sophisticated counterfeiting techniques.

 

The proposed new coin will be roughly the same size as the current one and will be based on the three pence piece that disappeared after decimalisation in the early 1970s.

 

The new coin will be made in two colours and will incorporate state-of-the-art technology to ensure it can be authenticated⁷ at all points.

 

While the Queen's head will be on the obverse side of the coin, as it is on all legal tender in the UK, the Treasury⁸ has said there will be a public competition to decide the image on the other side.

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