Error 1983 £1 ?

[Chris Perkins]

This is an excerpt sent to me by a metal detectorist author:

In 1983, when the one-pound coin began to circulate, the Mint produced 400,000,000. Tucked away on the inner pages of a Treasure Hunter issue for that year there's a report of the first lost 1983 one-pound coin turning up as a detector find. Who knows how many of those four hundred millions have slipped from pockets and purses, or down the backs of sofas, since then? What I can say is there's a fair chance that some are now worth .. well, considerably more than one pound will have to satisfy your curiosity for the present, because the collector who bought the specimen I'm referring to declined to say how much he paid for it. Presumably he hopes another might be offered. So please be on the look-out for a 1983 one-pound coin which has what I understand is termed a “coarsely grained†edge - in other words, with fewer vertical lines on its edge than most other one-pound coins. The explanation is thought to be that part of a die used to produce some of the foreign coins the Mint also makes was accidentally used to produce a batch of 1983 one-pounders.

Anyone heard about this coarse £1 coin? Syl? Kuhli?

[kuhli]

News to me. Can't say I've ever seen one offered anywhere. As for as the "accidental wrong die use", the RM was minting £1 coins in 1983 (same specs as UK) for Guernsey and Jersey. I don't have any of those to compare the millings, so I can neither confirm nor deny that possibility.

Will add that to my "rumoured to exist" list, and keep an eye out for one.

[mint_mark]

I haven't heard of this either... but I did check some others that I have.

Guernsey has a similar edge to the UK saying "Bailiwick of Guernsey"

Jersey also has a similar edge to the UK saying "Insula Caesarea"

Those are the only two channel island examples I have... I expect there are different inscriptions for different issues. My Isle of Man examples are alternating grained and smooth areas, but these are made by Pobjoy mint, as are the Gibraltar ones I think.

Not sure about Falkland Islands and St Helena... I know I have a couple, but they seem to be "tucked away" at the moment...

[Sylvester]

I look at all of my £1 coins Chris. For duds and for 1988s, i look on the edges of every one and i'm sure i would have spotted it by now!

Unless he's got a one off?

[Guest gadget_I'm_a_Guest]

i have a 1984 st helena £1 and is similer to guernsy and jersey

[Peter]

Can't really get my teeth into anything decimal.....or pretty much post 1936.

[Sylvester]

Can't really get my teeth into anything decimal.....or pretty much post 1936.

I have to same feeling towards post-1399 coins that don't fall into the 1663-1799 period.

I find decimal a little more alluring than Elizabeth II predecimal though, never rated the Gillick much.

[Leviathan]

Sorry for the gravedig, but I have just come across a Guernsey £1 coin, with flowers on one side, and the crest of Guernsey on the other. It is smaller that the normal £1, and feels a bit lighter. Any ideas? I'll be keeping it anyway, just because I have never seen nor heard of one before.

[Peckris]

I find decimal a little more alluring than Elizabeth II predecimal though, never rated the Gillick much.

Ooohhhh! The Gillick portrait is my favourite (run a close second by the Machin). There's something nobly elegant about the crown-less bust, with only a laurel wreath. And the great thing about those first two portraits is they are true busts, not the truncated heads of later designs.

The one I utterly detest, is that awful, shallow, boring, Maklouf design.