New £1 coin unveiled

[I] Thus the £1 coin is to be replaced not because one in 34 are duds, but because its meltdown value is greater than its face value.[/I] Now we know why the new £1 coin is going to look like the old three penny bit - it will buy about the same as the 3d coin did - eg a newspaper (but not a broadsheet). I am sure that anyone who still has a 3d coin will be pleased to know just how secure it is - bet they did not know at the time.

Poobah Wrote: [I] @Arblaster: you are confusing the intrinsic value of the coins with the value they represent..[/I] No, I'm not. [I]...as if we were still on the gold standard...[/I] Read some of my other postings and you will see that I advocate a return to the Gold Standard. [I]...and the coins themselves were gold or silver. The coins, like banknotes, are fiat currency - merely tokens representing an arbitrary value.[/I] If you knew what you were talking about, you would know that there are current gold and silver coins that are legal tender. These, too, have arbitrary face values. [I]But for their life expectancy, they could just as well be made of plastic. You would not, I am sure, try to assert that the paper a twenty-pound note is printed on is worth twenty pounds, or ever was.[/I] Go through my postings and find an instance where I ever said this. A banknote is just a chit. My posting on this thread was about coins, [I] The value of the coins in your pocket, purse, or piggy bank is indeed wasting away, but that's due to inflation. [/I] [I] Papagallo! [/I] You are just repeating what I have said above in my posting. [I] Silver coins minted prior to 1947 actually contained some silver (pre-1921 coins, more still), and by the late 1960s their intrinsic value considerably exceeded their face value, with the result that huge numbers were illegally melted down, a fate which was about to befall our bronze coins (due to the soaring price of copper) before they acquired their steel core. [/I] But this is what I have said already. In the case of the 2p and 1p coins, the metal in the bronze ones are worth over twice their face value. That is why there are lots of people all over the world who go through coins and separate the old ones and hang onto them. An old shilling would be worth substantially more than 5p. You start off by critising me, as though you were smarter than I; but all you are doing is supporting my argument that the UK does not mint coins that cost more to mint than their face value. Thus the £1 coin is to be replaced not because one in 34 are duds, but because its meltdown value is greater than its face value.

As 3D printing technology advances, I wonder how easy it will be to fake any coin with a 3D printer. Just a thought.