British one penny coin Totally Explained

Everything about British One Penny Coin totally explained

ť For the pre-decimal British one penny coin, see British One Penny coin (pre-decimal). For silver pennies produced after 1820 see Maundy money.

The British decimal one penny (1p) coin, produced by the Royal Mint, was issued on 15 February 1971, the day the British currency was decimalised. In practice, it had been available from banks in bags of £1 for some weeks previously. The coin, known at first as a "new penny", was initially minted from bronze, but since 1992 it has been minted in copper-plated steel. As this is less dense than bronze, post-1992 coins have been slightly thicker, as well as becoming magnetic. The coin weighs 3.56 grams and has a diameter of 20.32 millimetres.
   One penny and two pence coins are legal tender only up to the sum of 20p; this means that it's permissible to refuse payment of sums greater than this amount in 1p and 2p coins in order to settle a debt.
   As of December 2005 there were an estimated 10,576 million 1p coins in circulation.
   In recent years the value of the copper in the pre-1992 coins (which are 97% copper) has exceeded the coins' face value. For example, at the start of April 2008, copper was trading at around £4300/tonne, making the intrinsic value of the 1p coin about 1.5p.

Design

The original reverse of the coin, designed by Christopher Ironside, and used from 1971 to 2008, is a crowned portcullis with chains (an adaptation of the Badge of Henry VII which is now the Badge of the Palace of Westminster), The winner, announced in April 2008, was Matthew Dent, whose designs will appear on the British coinage from summer 2008. The designs for the 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p and 50p coins depict sections of the Royal Shield that form the whole shield when placed together. The shield in its entirety is featured on the £1 coin. The 1p coin depicts the left section between the first and third quarter of the shield, representing England and Ireland.

Mintages

1971 ~ 1,521,666,250
1972 ~ none
1973 ~ 280,196,000
1974 ~ 330,892,000
1975 ~ 221,604,000
1976 ~ 300,160,000
1977 ~ 285,430,000
1978 ~ 292,770,000
1979 ~ 459,000,000
1980 ~ 416,304,000
1981 ~ 301,800,000
1982 ~ 100,292,000
1983 ~ 243,002,000
1984 ~ 154,759,625
1985 ~ 200,605,245
1986 ~ 369,989,130
1987 ~ 499,946,000
1988 ~ 793,492,000
1989 ~ 658,142,000
1990 ~ 529,047,500
1991 ~ 206,457,600 composition changed to bronze-plated steel
1992 ~ 253,867,000
1993 ~ 602,590,000
1994 ~ 843,834,000
1995 ~ 303,314,000
1996 ~ 723,840,060
1997 ~ 396,874,000
1998 ~ 739,770,000
1999 ~ 891,392,000
2000 ~ 1,060,364,000
2001 ~ 928,802,000
2002 ~ 601,446,000
2003 ~ 539,436,000
2004 ~ 739,764,000
2005 ~ 378,752,000

Further Information

Get more info on 'British One Penny Coin'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://british_one_penny_coin.totallyexplained.com">British one penny coin Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.