Backgroundinformation

[Kai]

Background information

02 April 2008

Coin Facts

– It is estimated that almost 28 billion United Kingdom coins are in circulation, with a total face value of more than £3.5 billion. If all the circulating coins in the United Kingdom were laid out side to side, they would form a line 397,289 miles long, which is the distance it would take to travel around the world nearly 16 times.

– At the Royal Mint, the most up-to-date coin press can strike more than 850 coins per minute - 14-coins per second - making it impossible for the human eye to separate the individual pieces as they pass through the press.

– Only four non-Royals have appeared on British coins: Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century; Winston Churchill on a 1965 crown; Horatio Nelson on a 2005 crown and Isambard Kingdom Brunel on a 2006 £2 coin.

– The 50p piece issued in 1969 was the first coin in the world to be struck in the shape of an equilateral curve heptagon. The 20p coin is the same shape, and was introduced in 1982.

– Every year at Goldsmiths’ Hall newly minted coins are checked for size, weight, and composition at the Trial of the Pyx. This is the official procedure for ensuring that newly minted coins conform to required standards.

– Coins have often been used as weights and are stacked in the huge pendulum of Big Ben to regulate the clock.

– Grained edges on coins help those with impaired vision to distinguish between different denominations.

– Since the time of Charles II successive monarchs have been depicted on coins facing in the opposite direction to their immediate predecessor.

– There have been four standard coinage portraits of Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth II on United Kingdom coins, all facing to the right.

– Despite the widespread use of credit cards and debit cards, more coins are now being used in the United Kingdom than at any point in the past.