Unusual 2008 / 2009 £1 Coin (Pic included)

[MikeCoin]

I was going through a bag of £1 coins a friend at work had bagged up before banking (with his permission, obviously! =p), and inside was this pretty unusual £1 coin. It's either 2008 or 2009 and it just looks weird!

Could this be a fake? Without coin scales I can't give the weight but the writing around the side is crisp and square. The crosshatch detail in the shield on heads is also crisp and clear.

Heads: Where's the writing? Why's the detail so faint? My initial impression is that it someone could have scuffed it up on the floor with their foot, but the look is completely inconsistant with that sort of defacing.

Tails: Where's the "One" on the left?

What do you make of it?

[Chris Perkins]

I think it's a mint cock up. Struck with a blockage of grease, or not enough pressure, or both.

[MikeCoin]

Would that classify it as an error coin? Do you think it has a value (not that I'd sell it)?

[Chris Perkins]

I'd also tip 2008 as it looks like it's seen plenty of circulation (from the scratching) and I'm not sure if 2009 £1 coins are out there yet.

I suppose it's interesting enough to be worth more than £1. I'd offer £5.00. Maybe someone else somewhere would offer more, it's often a bit hit and miss with errors.

[The Dark Numismatist]

Nice coin and excellent images!

I would agree with Chris that it is most likely a mint error rather than a fake. At first glance at the obverse I would have said 'FAKE!!!' but the reverse is a different matter. I have seen several forgeries of the Matthew Dent design and they are generally lacking the fine detail on the reverse which is apparent on the coin in the photo.

The edge lettering also looks reasonably good from what I can see - although some forgers can produce *almost* faultless inscriptions.

[MikeCoin]

Here's a photo I've just taken of the edge lettering.

One thing I initially spotted when I compared the coin to a standard 2008 pound was that the lettering around the edge was flipped. On this coin it's tails side up for the lettering (as you can see in the photo) but the comparison one was heads side up.

I did a check with all the other pound coins I had (dated through the years) and this seemed to be a 50/50 occurance though so I didn't really consider that much to be concerned about.

[Hussulo]

I'm not a 100% sure but I think they do the lettering on these at a different time to striking the main design of the obverse and reverse.

That is probably why they are 50/50 when it comes to which way up the lettering is.

As for the missing letters I agree with Chris and the The Dark Numismatist in that I think it is probably struck through grease or perhaps without the correct force needed. The mint sometimes do strike some coins with different amounts of force to check the pressure prior to striking the main batch, perhaps its one of them?

[The Dark Numismatist]

That is correct, Hussulo, the blanks are fed into the press with the edge lettering already in place so the orientation is completely random, and the law of averages would mean that they would be about 50/50 facing heads or tails.