Old £1 coins-how to get rid?

Just found a stack of old £1 coins at the back of a (not opened for years ) drawer and was wondering if anyone has suggestions for how to spend/bank them (if even possible anymore)? Tried local post office with no success...

81A said:

Just found a stack of old £1 coins at the back of a (not opened for years ) drawer and was wondering if anyone has suggestions for how to spend/bank them (if even possible anymore)? Tried local post office with no success...

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You used to be able to cash them in at a bank branch, not sure if that's still the case. Failing that, I believe that the Bank of England will take them.

@81A. Can you not still pay them in to a bank account at places like Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Nationwide or Santander? Not sure though that the Bank of England will actually still take the things.

The Royal Mint says that most high street banks are typically willing to accept demonetised coins (like the old, round £1 coin) and exchange them for a new coin. Some larger Post Office branches are usually willing to do this too.


Retail banks which say they accept old coins include: Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC, Nationwide, Santander, and Virgin Money. You cannot exchange old coins at the Bank of England.


Banks and Post Office branches are under absolutely no legal obligation to exchange old £1 coins with new ones, meaning it is up to their own discretion whether they do so.

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Found this money week article on the subject. I suppose your best bet id go to one of these banks if you bank with them, otherwise try a bigger post office a bit further from you. All else fails you can use them in shopping trolleys and swimming pool changing room lockers and whatnot until you lose them one by one anyway! The Bank of England isn't involved in the issue and withdrawal of coins which is why they don't take them, but you can send old notes or more than 50% of a damaged note and get fresh ones.

Thanks all, will maybe try my bank (nearest branch is a bit of a trek now...) or a larger post office. Fortunately a small enough amount it isn't a disaster if I can't get rid (thanks @To the trains for the trolly token/pool locker idea-some lockers even keep the coins, wonder if they would accept?).

81A said:

Thanks all, will maybe try my bank (nearest branch is a bit of a trek now...) or a larger post office. Fortunately a small enough amount it isn't a disaster if I can't get rid (thanks @To the trains for the trolly token/pool locker idea-some lockers even keep the coins, wonder if they would accept?).

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Maybe it's more precisely engineered if they keep the money but my experience dictates these non electrical coin mechanisms (including those twisty gumball/plastic-toy-in-a-pod machines) will usually take anything roundish that's about the right size, only one way to find out! The Royal Mint doesn't appear to take withdrawn coins, but I reckon with the weight, the postage might be more than the actual value of the coins anyway!

Personally, if it were a relatively small amount, I think I'd just donate them to charity. There's always volunteers happy to spend their time doing this sort of thing.

Obviously if you've discovered £1k of old £1 coins, you might prefer not to do that. You could contact your bank branch in advance to see what they can do but there's two issues - one is the usual anti-money laundering checks for larger deposits; the other is that the £1 coin was redesigned specifically because so many of the old £1 coins were forged, so depositing a large quantity of them is going to be viewed somewhat suspiciously.

Sell them on eBay? A few collectors might snap them up, even if paying more than their legal tender value in the process.

styles said:

depositing a large quantity of them is going to be viewed somewhat suspiciously.

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Fairly small number of coins, definitely not likely to appear fraudulent to a bank.

Thanks again everyone, lots of good ideas in here. I think I will see which of these opportunities to use/deposit/donate pops up first.

TSB were accepting them at a branch paid in to a TSB account, as long as the coins were bagged up in coin bags - £20 per bag. That was certainly within the last year, but before the takeover by Santander.

The Bank of England only exchanges Bank of England notes.

The Royal Mint doesn't have a public-facing exchange point.

6 months ago, I deposited some old £1 coins in the automated coin machines in a Natwest branch.

Most other banks will accept them in branch for deposit to an account over the counter. As mentioned, if you have more than 20, they should be bagged in standard coin bags.

If you are visiting the Isle of Man, you can use them in the self-checkouts in M&S or Tesco, although you are not supposed to. They probably still work in Morrisons Gibraltar as well.

Collectors are not very interested in these unless they are in perfect condition, or possibly if they are one of the rarer designs such as the flowers or capitals series. You may get lucky on ebay, otherwise coin dealers will buy perfect specimens for £1.20 and sell them for £1.50.

If you find a bank branch which is happy to take them in large quantities and accepts any old explanation, you can buy them in bulk from coin dealers for around 85-95p each. I know two coin dealers who were threatented with closure of their business banking service if they continued to deposit any more old £1 coins (having gone through 6 figures of these over the years since their withdrawal).

It was reported that 3% of the £1 coins in circulation were fake at the time of their replacement, although bulk lots of these coins that are being redeemed these days only have about a 1% fake rate.

Do they work in supermarket "exchange coins for notes/vouchers" machines?

I got one in my change a month or so back and the bank were happy to take it as long as it was deposited.